The Guardian
· collected 2026-10-08 · by Mark Brown North of England correspondent
Shahid Malik, a former Labour MP and minister, has been found not guilty of charges related to his involvement with RT Diagnostics, a fraudulent Covid-19 testing company. The trial at Bradford Crown Court concluded on Thursday, with Malik cleared of fraudulent trading, causing public nuisance, and money laundering. Prosecutors claimed the company made £6.67 million in three weeks from March 2021 but was set up in inadequate conditions and provided false negative results. Defence lawyers argued that Malik's involvement was minimal, as he mainly facilitated introductions and investments without direct oversight of the laboratory operations.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-08,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Shahid Malik, a 58-year-old former Labour MP for Dewsbury and ex-minister who served under Gordon Brown's government, was cleared of charges related to his involvement in RT Diagnostics, a fraudulent COVID-19 testing company. Prosecutors alleged that the firm was set up as a "cash cow" to take advantage of the UK government’s expanding test-and-trace system starting in March 2021. The case against Malik and four others began at Bradford Crown Court last October, but the jury was discharged due to an allegation of tampering in April. Judge Christopher Smith then continued the trial without a jury and found Malik not guilty of fraudulent trading, causing public nuisance, and money laundering. In contrast, Faisal Shoukat, a pharmacist and former Labour councillor, was convicted on all charges. The company reportedly submitted over 138,000 test results to the national database between May and July 2021, with only 45 positive cases, suggesting significant irregularities in their operations.
Written for “Covid Testing Fraud Trial” on 2026-10-08,
grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 65884 · logged 2026-10-08
A former Labour MP and justice minister has been found not guilty of charges around his role in a fraudulent Covid-19 testing company.
asserted
MP → find → company
Shahid Malik, 58, was MP for Dewsbury between 2005 and 2010 and served as a minister in three departments in Gordon Brown’s government.
Malik was one of five people charged with offences relating to RT Diagnostics, a company that prosecutors said was a “cash cow” set up to take advantage of the UK government’s expanding test-and-trace system in March 2021.
asserted
prosecutors → serve → March
On Thursday, Malik was found not guilty of fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance and money laundering in a trial at Bradford crown court, which was, unusually, conducted without a jury.
asserted
which → find → jury
The trial began in October last year and jurors were sent out to start their deliberations in March.
asserted
jurors → begin → March
In April, they were discharged by Judge Smith after an allegation of jury tampering.
asserted
they → discharge → tampering
Smith took the decision to continue the trial without the jury, and that he would decide on the verdicts.
asserted
he → take → verdicts
The court heard that Malik started the business with the pharmacist and former Labour councillor Faisal Shoukat, 39, when the third national lockdown was ending in March 2021.
asserted
lockdown → hear → March
Shoukat was found guilty of all three offences.
asserted
Shoukat → find → offences
Paul Moore, 57, who had a senior role in RT Diagnostics and was Malik’s office manager when he was an MP, was cleared of causing a public nuisance and of fraudulent trading.
asserted
he → have → trading
Lynn Connell, 64, a manager at the company, and Alexander Zarneh, 70, who was its clinical director, were also cleared of the same two offences.
asserted
who → clear → offences
Prosecutors said RT Diagnostics, which made £6.67m in three weeks, was set up in “shoddy and inadequate premises” in Halifax and gave out false negative results to customers.
asserted
which → say → customers
The defence barrister, Jonathan Laidlaw KC, said Malik’s role in the business had been “very limited indeed” and he had acted as “a facilitator – putting the money up and making introductions”.
asserted
he → say → introductions
Giving his closing speech to jurors in March, Laidlaw said Malik never went to the premises when it was in operation.
asserted
it → give → operation
He told the court that for most of the time the business was operating, Malik was out of the country and there was no evidence he was told about any of its issues while he was abroad.
asserted
he → tell → issues
Laidlaw said the fact that the former MP had made money from RT Diagnostics “can’t possibly be the basis for a guilty verdict”.
uncertain
MP → say → verdict
The court heard that as the third national lockdown was ending in March 2021, the government was looking to expand its test-and-trace system by increasing the number of laboratories offering PCR testing.
asserted
government → hear → testing
The defendants were accused of “taking advantage” of that process with an “inadequate and non-compliant” testing company which, prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said, “generated a suspiciously low number of positive results”.
asserted
KC → accuse → results
Sandiford said the Halifax laboratory was set up in inadequate premises with holes in the walls and ceilings, and rubbish strewn around.
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laboratory → say → walls
Jurors heard that the company employed “numerous young people who had little or no training in the handling of Covid-19 samples” and set them to work with no social distancing and no personal protective equipment.
asserted
who → hear → distancing
Along with Sadiq Khan, Malik was the first British-born Muslim to become an MP and the first to become a government minister.
asserted
Malik → bear → Khan
He was appointed as an international development minister in 2007 and he later had ministerial jobs at the Department of Justice and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
asserted
he → appoint → Communities
The Aporia
