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Former police Superintendent Paul Richardson has told the McGrail Inquiry a search warrant was preferred over a production order at the offices of Hassans as he was concerned about the potential loss of evidence.
The former officer was the lead investigator into the alleged hacking of the National Security System, codenamed ‘Operation Delhi’, in which Hassans Senior Partner James Levy was a suspect. Mr Levy was never charged and denies any wrongdoing.
Mr Richardson however said he had not made any record of the advice given to him by the Director of Public Prosecutions that a production order was a preferable course of action because of client privilege.
The management of Operation Delhi is relied upon as evidence by all core participants in this Inquiry.
Former Commissioner Ian McGrail maintains he was put under improper pressure to retire early because a warrant was sought for a search at the offices and home of Mr Levy, the friend and associate of the Chief Minister.
Paul Richardson was the police superintendent who led that investigation.
His evidence is that, at the time, there was reason to suspect Mr Levy of collusion with the men who had been arrested for conspiracy to defraud.
The Director of Public Prosecution’s evidence is that his preference was for Mr Richardson to obtain a production order – an order for the person of interest to surrender an item of evidence - because devices owned by Hassans or Mr Levy would contain privileged information belonging to other clients.
Mr Richardson, who was questioned by the Inquiry’s counsel, Julian Santos, admitted he never recorded this advice in his logs of the investigation, and cannot recall if it was put to the Magistrate who granted the search warrant. He said he believed a search warrant was the preferred option to the police because it would prevent the destruction of evidence.
In answers to questions from Mr McGrail’s Lawyer, Adam Wagner, Mr Richardson said neither the Chief Minister, the Governor, the Attorney General or the GPA had access to any of his records or the evidence he possessed. He also confirmed Mr McGrail was not directly involved in Operation Delhi, nor was he present during the attempt to execute the search warrant or the court hearing to grant it.
He said he was shocked when the Attorney General suggested to him that Cain Sanchez, one of the three men arrested in Operation Delhi, be dealt with via a disciplinary. He also said he was shocked when he found Hassans had access to advice the DPP had given the Royal Gibraltar Police regarding a live police investigation.
Mr Richardson also revealed Mr McGrail had secretly recorded a meeting between them and the Attorney General. He initially said he was shocked when he had found out, but when questioned by the Government’s Lawyer, Sir Peter Caruana KC, said he felt more comfortable in subsequent meetings where this happened. While Mr Richardson accepted that these recordings didn’t need to be covert, he said he understood why Mr McGrail had recorded the meeting and believed there was no legal impediment to doing so.
Phone call transcript
Also in answers to questions from Mr Wagner, Mr Richardson said if the former Commissioner had been removed because of Operation Delhi, it would impact the way the police deals with crime in Gibraltar.
He said it would impact the way they deal with warrants in the future.
He said Mr McGrail an honest police officer and a man of integrity.
Following the reading out of a transcript of Mr McGrail's phone call to senior command when he knew he was retiring, Mr Richardson said it was a sad moment for him.
Redaction
During the morning’s proceedings the Inquiry encountered the first situation where it has had to navigate around the restriction notice imposed on it by the Government.
When asking questions about the investigation into the alleged hacking of the national security system, the Counsel for the Inquiry asked Mr Richardson to take care not to refer to redacted documents.
There will be a session held for private evidence from Mr Richardson tomorrow.