An Indian-origin lawyer has claimed that corruption within Scotland Yard was covered up, saying a police officer, who was involved in a money laundering inquiry against a billionaire Nigerian politician, was bribed, a media report said today.
Bhadresh Gohil claimed a former police officer probing the money laundering case of James Ibori had received corrupt payments from a private detective agency RISC Management which worked for Ibori.
Last week, Gohil, who was accused of leaking fabricated documents to media organisations and MPs, was cleared after the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) withdrew a charge of perverting the course of justice against him. The documents claimed a police officer involved in the inquiry of Ibori had received corrupt payments from RISC Management.
According to The Sunday Times, the decision to prosecute Gohil backfired as the CPS was accused of withholding key documents which could have proved police corruption.
Ibori, a former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta State, had pleaded guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud in the UK. He is now serving a 13-year prison sentence.
Gohil, who was Ibori's lawyer, had pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in 2012 in connection with the case. The Metropolitan began a probe against the lawyer after he alleged in a submission sent to the home affairs select committee from prison that RISC had paid bribes to Met officers.
Gohil, who was freed from jail last year, may now challenge his previous conviction, the newspaper said.
In representations to the judge, Stephen Kamlish, Gohil's defence team accused the CPS of "positively misleading the court and the parties as part of their deliberate cover-up of discloseable material".
In response, the judge said, "The crown has offered no evidence for one or both of the following reasons. One, that the allegations of corruption made by Mr Gohil are true, and not false. The second is that the crown has suppressed material both in this court and in other proceedings, including the trial of Ibori.
"The crown offering no evidence can only mean the crown is not prepared themselves to explain their decision, either for the abuse of the court in bad faith or for the police corruption. In those circumstance, it is our duty to our client to raise these matters and this brings into question the safety of these convictions."
A Met police intelligence report seen by the paper suggests an RISC employee telephoned a police officer working on the Ibori investigation in 2007 and allegedly told him his inquiries were "on the right track". Separate documents shown to Gohil's defence team are said to reveal the existence of 19 cash deposits into the same officer's bank account. The CPS had allegedly denied the existence of the documents.
