Two police officers face disciplinary action after the collapse of a fraud trial amid claims that expert witnesses — one of whom was not of “suitable calibre” — were coached.
The City of London detectives investigated an alleged £3.5m cold-calling scam in which eight men were accused of duping 72 people into making bad investments in carbon credits and diamonds.
Andrew Ager, a former carbon trader, gave evidence as an expert witness, but the case was thrown out after he admitted under cross-examination that he had no academic qualifications and had never read a book on carbon credits.
The fact that he was not of a “suitable calibre” and other “apparently insuperable problems” led prosecutors to abandon the “fatally flawed” case, said Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith,