Nadir attempt to bribe ruled out by CPS

A SENIOR QC has called for an independent inquiry into a police investigation of allegations that the fugitive tycoon Asil Nadir tried to bribe his trial judge.

In a surprise announcement yesterday, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was 'no credible evidence to support the allegations'. This evaluation is another serious blow to Scotland Yard and the Serious Fraud Office, which had spent at least a year investigating the claims and had taken them seriously enough to warn a High Court judge that he could be interviewed.

The investigation was apparently based on the word of two people - one a confidence trickster well known to Scotland Yard and a businesswoman - whom the Independent disclosed two weeks ago now claim they made the allegation up to try to frame Nadir. They also claim that the police asked them to do so - which has been denied by Scotland Yard.

The investigation was made public in October 1992, when the former Polly Peck chairman was facing charges of theft and false accounting involving more than pounds 30m. Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney General, and Barbara Mills, Director of Public Prosecutions, were made aware of the allegation that he was conspiring to pervert the course of justice and authorised the police and SFO to warn the judge, Mr Justice Tucker, that he might be asked to attend an interview.

Police later disclosed that Anthony Scrivener QC, Nadir's defence counsel and a former chairman of the Bar Council, and Wyn Jones, an assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, were alleged to have been involved. Mr Scrivener yesterday called for an independent inquiry into the investigation. 'If the evidence is not credible, why did the police pursue their inquiry? Why was it all raised in open court when there was no substantiation?'

Scotland Yard issued a brief statement which noted only that a file had been passed to the CPS on 5 November regarding allegations that Nadir had conspired to pervert the course of justice. The SFO declined to comment. Several senior police officers on attachment to the SFO had been involved in the conspiracy inquiry.

It is understood that Nadir's trustees in bankruptcy, who are trying to recover his personal assets, want an explanation of the relationship between police, SFO and the two witnesses. Nadir said last night: 'I'm extremely pleased that I've been vindicated on a most serious allegation.' In the next few weeks he would take legal action against 'numerous' bodies, including Scotland Yard's special operations branch, the Serious Fraud Office, and the Director of Public Prosecutions.