Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith closed the trial of eight men accused of a £7m carbon credit investment fraud after discovering expert witness Andrew Ager had no relevant qualifications and had recycled his witness statements from evidence he gave at other trials.
Ager is reported to have acted as an expert witness for the prosecution in at least 20 cases.
Mark Solon, co-founder of Bond Solon, which trains expert witnesses, said: ‘It may be that Ager was used merely because he had been used in the past but he continued to make the same mistakes, but with greater and greater confidence.
‘This was not noticed until the defence teams attacked his credibility and all was revealed in some excellent cross examination.’
Daniel Burbeary, partner at Cooke, Young & Keidan, said: ‘The credibility of factual and expert witnesses in complex fraud cases has suffered in recent years and cases like this one certainly don’t help.
‘Even when the factual witness or expert is doing their best to tell the truth, the heavy involvement of legal teams in preparing witness statements or expert reports can be detrimental to the process, and as a result, the content can sometimes be a far cry from the unbiased factual or opinion evidence that the court or tribunal is seeking in order to determine the facts in issue in the proceedings. However, changes such as a new working group looking to potentially reform the current system in civil litigation means we could see some of the current problems in the system being addressed in due course.’
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