BIS delivers documents it said didn’t exist

In the ongoing legal dispute with the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), Andrew Withers has now been able to force them to deliver documents and internal memo’s that it previously had said ‘just didn’t exist’.

In what can only be described as government corruption, ineptitude and cover up, Andrew has successfully forced them to admit that they purposely hid documents that were crucial to his court cases, a fight which has caused him to lose his business at considerable personal loss.

Andrew this morning issued the following statement:

Yesterday morning after a near two year battle with Vince Cable’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, I received the last set of documents from BIS private office that were requested under a FOI/Data Protection Request in October 2009. The Law states that the Department has forty working days in which to comply with a request.

Business Innovation and Skills required a ruling from the Information Commission in September 2010, which they ignored stating there was no data held on myself, an application to the High Court in October, which they chose to contest, then two days before the Hearing on 28th January 2011, they decided that they do hold data on myself in what was Mandelson’s private office.

Considering the statement that was oft repeated ‘ the data does simply not exist’ this last bundle was quite thick.

I do not want to reveal all of what was in these documents because this material is subject to a further application to the High Court to bring in as evidence that was withheld by BIS, but a flavour-

It was clear that Mandelson’s private office was aware that my company had been subject to a major fraud in France in 2006, and that Digby Jones and the British Ambassador had then presented the person involved with a prize at the British Embassy, with the embarrassing admission from the Paris Office of UKTI that they did not do checks into foreign companies that they give awards to.

In further internal reports this episode is airbrushed out of the record.

120 pages of evidence including a witness statement as to the theft of the British companies cash and assets was dismissed as ‘irrelevant’

An internal memo telling the Minister how to respond to my MP, Dr Liam Fox, contained statements from lawyers that were incorrect and in one instance a solicitor working for BIS told a downright lie, in order to suppress evidence of perjury and fraudulent documents.

Reference is made to ‘my history’ in one email, without saying what that history was, coupled with the ‘reference’ to targets. I will leave the reader to ponder how the last Labour administration used its years in power to work that one out.

In essence officials in BIS have mounted a damage limitation exercise by denying this data ever existed , in order that it could not be used in open court last year. Which even by the low standards of Whitehall is pretty shameful, because in lying to Liam Fox, they lied to Parliament.

I have to ask at what point will the perpetrators of this criminal action within BIS be brought to book and be held accountable.

On his own blog Andrew writes:

It is gut rending stuff to see legal officers on the public payroll, telling blatant lies to Ministers who then write to other MP’s and Ministers repeating the same untruth, we are talking withholding evidence, withholding witness statements and saying consent orders had been served knowing that they had not.

I am seeking clarification as to whether we are in the realms of perverting the course of justice at this stage.

It is sobering to realise that everything you ever suspected about the State was true, and it is not until you see it in black and white before you from a Minister of State’s private office do you realise the depth of cynical corruption in Whitehall.

Andrew Withers has since been confirmed as the Leader of the Libertarian Party UK (LPUK).

You can view the step by step history of this case here.

Notes for editors

1) The Libertarian Party was founded on November 21st 2007 and officially launched on January 1st 2008. The party’s website can be found at: http://www.lpuk.org

2) Further details of the party’s policies can be found in our manifesto:
http://www.lpuk.org/pages/manifesto.php

3) The Libertarian Party UK is a minarchist party utilising political philosophy based on support for individual liberty.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism

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