A LABOUR Councillor’s Covid-testing business has been caught issuing thousands of ‘fit-to-fly’ certificates despite binning the kits upon return and not checking if customers receiving the certificates have tested positive.
The Sun revealed the shocking allegations, with evidence, relating to one of the UK’s leading Covid testing centre.
The centre, owned and run by Labour Councillor Faisal Shoukat, has been accused by a growing number of angry and concerned customers of printing sham negative result certificates, and certificates to allow them to fly – despite throwing the returned kits in boxes left in offices or, in some cases, tossed into a rubbish heap.
The Halifax-based firm, RT Diagnostics, which is understood to be receiving as many as 10,000 orders per day at £45 per test, targets holidaymakers urgently seeking to get tested as part of the government’s rules on flying.
Numerous customers have now come forward and reported the company to Action fraud, who are currently investigating.
A shocked worker at the firm told The Sun: “The staff are not testing all the samples but people are being told their results are negative. This is very serious.
“Their customers could be spreading the virus around completely unaware.”
Footage taken by a whistleblower and passed on to The Sun reveals stacks of tests abandoned on floors, in boxes, and in black bin bags piled high outside.
Last night former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt demanded an urgent probe into the shocking scandal.
“This is shocking and also highly dangerous in the battle against Covid” he said. “There needs to be an immediate investigation and, if appropriate, charges brought.”
Another worker claimed: “They’re then put in black plastic bags and dumped at the back of the offices.
“At one point the back looked like a landfill site, there were that many bags. It’s appalling.”
staff handling the sensitive tests were filmed not wearing any personal protective equipment before tossing the tubes into boxes.
Working with the police, Action Fraud confirmed it has received complaints about the firm.
“Very very concerning” one former customer wrote on a Facebook group dedicated to exposing the scandal. “I’ve sent off Day 2 test and have had a negative result. When checking they’ve also given us a negative result for Day 8 even though Day 8 (result) isn’t due to be sent till Saturday???”
Another, Tammy Ablitt said: “We used RT Diagnostic recently and there’s no way they could have received our Day 5 and Day 8 Covid tests as quickly as they gave us the results. Luckily, we were testing ourselves with NHS Covid tests at home to make sure we were Covid free.”
Angry customer Deglan Holland added: “The certificates themselves have no reference to the test samples and each one has the same document ID.”
