Wednesday, 12 June 2019

When Is An Expert Witness Not An Expert Witness...?

Well, there's a question indeed! A fellow blogger brings me this little gem (pun intended):
Between May 2011 and February 2015, more than 70 victims - mainly vulnerable pensioners - were conned into investing into one of five companies which invested in the diamond and carbon credit industries.
In total, they lost £3.5million and today at Southwark Crown Court eight defendants walked free from court after a judge was forced to deliver not guilty verdicts on multiple fraud charges.
Well, fraud cases are notoriously hard to prosec...

Wait a minute!
The case collapsed following “chaotic” disclosure failures and after the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) key witness, Andrew Ager was discredited as “wholly misleading”.
Oh dear. Well, expert witnesses are often too obscure in their field yo convince a j...

Wait a minute!
Mr Ager, the CPS’s expert witness on the carbon credit trading market, admitted that he had no academic qualifications, had received no training nor had he attended any course on the carbon credit trade.
He said that could not remember if he had passed any A-levels and that he had never read the only book published on what was supposed to be his area of expertise.
Instead, he claimed that he had learned “from his environment”.
Ha ha ha ha ha!

Never mind, CPS, it's only taxpayer's money. And it's not like you'll be on the hook for it, is it?
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4 comments:

  1. Stonyground12 June 2019 at 19:11

    I've been an expert witness in a case involving an accident with a pneumatic nailer. Unlike this guy I actually know a lot about my subject.

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  2. MTG13 June 2019 at 09:07

    "When Is An Expert Witness Not An Expert Witness...?"

    This one stinks to the mesosphere...when the witness is a retired plod (often an 'expert' with only a School Leaving Certificate to their name), who is working for a plod-employing agency which in turn is in bed with CPS contacts.

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  3. Umbongo13 June 2019 at 09:51

    I've been and am an expert witness in the High Court. The first question I'm always asked by counsel is to state my qualifications and relevant experience. Of course, these are civil proceedings so both sides (usually) are coughing up from their own resources. The CPS is using magic money - or tax as it is known in the real world - so who (in the CPS anyway) cares? It's not as if anyone is going to lose their job over this, is it?

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  4. JuliaM16 June 2019 at 07:17

    "...an accident with a pneumatic nailer."

    Crikey!

    "Of course, these are civil proceedings so both sides (usually) are coughing up from their own resources. The CPS is using magic money - or tax as it is known in the real world - so who (in the CPS anyway) cares? "

    Spot on!

    ReplyDelete