The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) faced intense criticism yesterday after the Supreme Court quashed the convictions of traders Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo for Libor rate rigging.
Hayes and Palombo were jailed for manipulating the Libor benchmark rate to benefit their own trading positions.
But yesterday Britain’s highest court ruled that the judge in Hayes’ case had misdirected the jury in a way that effectively removed from them the ability to consider his defence.
‘That was an error,’ it said. Palombo’s conviction was unsafe for similar reasons. And it could pave the way for seven others convicted of similar offences to be cleared.
For Hayes, who was convicted in 2015 and spent five-and-a-half years in jail – destroying his career and marriage – it completes a decade-long fight for justice.
And the case raises serious questions about the SFO after setbacks in other major cases including prosecutions involving executives at Tesco, G4S and Serco.
Appeal: The Supreme Court has quashed the convictions of traders Tom Hayes, right, and Carlo Palombo, left, for Libor rate rigging
Tory MP David Davis, who backed the traders, said: ‘This is a major scandal in which traders were made scapegoats for the sins of the financial crisis.
‘Lives ruined, families torn apart, careers and reputations destroyed and of course for Tom and Carlo, loss of liberty. Their cases serve as yet another example of a justice system gone badly wrong.’
Davis claimed the SFO was part of a ‘scapegoating exercise’ also including the banks and the City regulator.
Karen Todner, Hayes’ solicitor, said: ‘The SFO failed spectacularly. The result destroyed people’s lives who frankly did not deserve it.’
Todner called for a public inquiry and said the right of bodies such as the SFO as well as the Post Office and the RSPCA to prosecute individuals should be removed.
‘The dual role of the SFO as investigator and prosecutor creates a substantial conflict of interest which creates miscarriages of justice,’ she added.
‘It should be disbanded. I think they really failed as a team.’
Hayes said: ‘The behaviour of the SFO is shocking. The SFO is a conflicted organisation that’s not fit for purpose. It’s got a history of criminalising the non-criminal.’
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This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .