A disgraced human rights lawyer who pursued British soldiers over fake war crimes in Iraq has avoided jail after being sentenced for legal aid fraud.
Phil Shiner, 67, admitted three counts of fraud to secure £200,000 to fund a judicial review into an alleged war crime.
Judge Hehir, sitting at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, sentenced him to two years in prison for all three counts, suspended for two years.
He told Shiner he accepted he did not personally benefit from his frauds, adding that his “enthusiasm” for his client’s case meant he lost his “judgment”.
Shiner, wearing a pin-strip suit, a red tie, his trademark red glasses and occasionally leaning on a walking stick, spoke only to confirm his name. He showed no emotion as he the sentence was handed down.
Shiner, from Birmingham, hid the fact that an agent acting on his behalf had been cold-calling potential clients in Iraq on his behalf in 2007 following the 2003 Iraq war.
He also admitted paying referral fees, which was also in contravention of the terms of being granted a legal aid contract. Shiner had made an application to the Legal Services Commission in 2007 in which he sought up to £200,000 of legal aid funding for his firm, Public Interest Lawyer, to represent clients including Khuder al-Sweady, in an application for judicial review.
Shiner had brought thousands of criminal complaints to the Iraq Historical Investigations Team – a body set up by the Ministry of Defence to investigate soldiers which has since been disbanded. Not a single one was ever charged.
A later public inquiry found that the most serious claims of murder and torture of Iraqi national by British troops were “entirely false” and the product of “deliberate lies”.