Husband and wife hit jackpot with Iraq claims

Founders of firm providing 127 staff for lagging MoD investigation pay themselves hundreds of thousands of pounds in dividends

CHIEF REPORTER FOR hundreds of British troops, the prospect of being prosecuted for events that took place in Iraq 13 years ago remains a very real nightmare.

Almost 1,500 cases of abuse, including allegations of torture and even murder, of Iraqis are currently being investigated by a special team set up by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Soldiers are terrified of being arrested more than a decade on from the occupation of Iraq and are dismayed and disgusted by the length of time the investigations are taking.

But for one husband and wife team, the British occupation of southern Iraq has proved a cash bonanza.

Martin Jerrold and his wife Helen have paid themselves dividends worth hundreds of thousands of pounds after winning the contract to provide civilian investigators for the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat).

The Jerrolds’ company Red Snapper Recruitment was first awarded the contract in February 2013 and had it renewed last year. The contract is worth £4.8 million a year – about 12 per cent of Red Snapper’s total turnover.

The company currently supplies 127 investigators and analysts, many of them former police officers, to the Ihat team. Accounts for Red Snapper show how business has boomed since it successfully bid for the Ihat account.

The company’s turnover more than doubled from £7.6million to £15.3million in the 12 months to the end of May 2014 and almost trebled to £20.5million by May 2015. Red Snapper first won the contract in February 2013 and had it renewed last year.

An analysis of the company accounts show that Mr and Mrs Jerrold, who live in a £2 million house in north London, were paid a dividend of £318,539 in the 12 months to May 31, 2014, the first year after the company won the lucrative Ihat deal.

The next year’s accounts, for the year ending May 31, 2015, show a further distribution of dividends of £320,260. The company’s operating profits have risen in the two years since winning the Ihat contract from £181,980 in May 2013 to £1.1 million in May 2015, a sixfold rise.

Mr and Mrs Jerrold set up Red Snapper Recruitment in 2004. Mr Jerrold, 45, had worked in the media and recruitment sectors for about a decade before going into business for himself. The Red Snapper website says of Mr Jerrold “he’s a good guy”. His 41-year-old wife had worked for accountancy firms before taking up her role as Red Snapper’s finance director in 2008. The couple have largely avoided the spotlight. Until last week, that is, when Mr Jerrold was forced to step out of the shadows to appear before a parliamentary select committee. In a candid admission, Mr Jerrold told the assembled MPs of his own concern that cases seemed to be taking a long time to investigate.

In the six years since Ihat was set up, not a single soldier has been taken to court.

According to Ihat’s latest figures, 196 cases have either closed or are in the process of being closed while almost 1,500 are “subject to further work”.

“From a common sense perspective, the progress seems very slow,” said Mr Jerrold, in his evidence to the parliamentary committee, adding: “I have no idea why that might be.” Mr Jerrold was at pains to point out that his company simply provides the staffing for the Ihat team but has no say in its running.

He disclosed that Red Snapper provides 127 staff to Ihat, out of its total workforce of about 150.

Most of Red Snapper’s contractors are retired police officers, already enjoying the benefits of a police pension, who are paid up to £34.77 an hour, equivalent to £260 a day, for working on the Ihat team, although that includes relocation costs. According to the Red Snapper website, recruits can be paid as individuals or through limited companies, which can be effective in reducing tax.

In a review into Ihat, commissioned by the MoD following concerns over the time investigations have been taking, Sir David Calvert-Smith, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, revealed that “over the last few years poor performers have been let go”.

Sir David did not specify whether the “poor performers” referred to investigators supplied by Red Snapper or by its predecessor G4S.

Ihat said yesterday that “in the last 12 months, five Red Snapper employees … have left as a result of performance or conduct-related concerns being raised by the Ihat management team”.

Sir David also expressed concern that the Ihat investigators were not subjected to the “degree of oversight one would expect in a domestic force … so that performance has in fact varied from pod to pod”.

Sir David concluded Ihat was being well run by its senior management team, led by Mark Warwick, a former senior detective with the Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police and the National Crime Squad.

But MPs and veterans have repeatedly expressed concern at the time Ihat investigations are taking amid concern that civilian investigators have no incentive to wind up cases quickly. “It seems to be a self-financing industry that has yet to produce a single case that can stand up in court,” said Johnny Mercer, Conservative MP and defence sub-committee chairman last week. “This is all public money and we are funding a machine that a lot of people think is totally insane.”

Red Snapper was unavailable for comment.