Stratford Hamilton, above, of PKF Littlejohn Advisory, the appointed liquidator to Public Interest Lawyers Limited managed by Phil Shiner, will shortly begin declaring a dividend to creditors following the disgraced lawyer’s guilty plea.
The specialist contentious insolvency and specialist investigations (SI) team within PKF Littlejohn Advisory was originally appointed back in 2017. However, it is only now – and following the guilty plea by Mr Shiner that he did indeed fraudulently obtain public funds to bring lawsuits on behalf of Iraqi civilians against British soldiers – that the work can begin to pay money back to creditors of the company.
Stratford, who has more than 20 years’ experience in handling typically complex, high-profile cases, says that Shiner’s guilty plea will now enable his team to begin the long process of distributing funds to creditors which will include a number of government departments. Due to the actions of PKF Littlejohn Advisory’s Special Investigations team, recoveries were made in the case of over £2.2m.
“The government is not the only victim of Mr Shiner’s fraud, and we will continue to work closely with creditors in what is an incredibly complex and long-running saga,” he says.
Philip Shiner pleaded guilty to failing to disclose, when applying for public funding, that he had asked middlemen to approach potential claimants and had paid for referrals, breaching his firm’s contracts. Shiner will re-appear at Southwark Crown Court in December for sentencing.
