Operation Tempura attorney cedes defeat
A
disbarred UK attorney who
was the legal advisor to the ill-fated Operation Tempura police investigation
in the Cayman Islands has now dropped a
complaint he filed in connection with the case.
Martin
Polaine was required to give a public apology to Grand Court Justice Alex
Henderson, who was arrested during the 2007-2008 investigation. He was also
disbarred late last year following a disciplinary hearing before the UK Bar
Standards Board
Being
disbarred means expulsion from the practice of law.
“My
life has been ruined, even though I was acting in good faith at all times and
was simply seeking to conduct myself professionally and properly,” Mr. Polaine
wrote in an e-mail to the Caymanian Compass. “I now know that I have been
beaten.”
The
precise nature of Mr. Polaine’s complaint “against those who behaved in certain
ways in relation to Operation Tempura” is not known. When asked for
clarification, Mr. Polaine sent the following response:
“I
can simply say that my complaint related to sections of the judiciary, to the
Attorney General’s Chambers and the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office),” Mr.
Polaine said.
According
to the Cayman Islands Governor’s office, Mr. Polaine and Operation Tempura’s
former chief investigator, Martin Bridger, filed a complaint earlier this year. Mr. Polaine said his complaint
regarded the “behaviour” of certain individuals in the Operation Tempura
investigation.
Head
of the Governor’s Office Steve Moore said he knew Mr. Polaine had withdrawn the
complaint, but he was unaware of any such decision being made by Mr. Bridger.
The former chief superintendent on the Operation Tempura case was believed to
be in Kenya
at press time and was unreachable for comment.
Mr.
Moore said the governor’s office had brought in Benjamin Aina, QC to review various
aspects of the complaint.
“This
[complaint] is certainly wide-ranging and requires a lot of looking into,” Mr.
Moore said. He declined to release a copy of the document citing the on-going
review.
Mr.
Polaine said he had lost “any faith, confidence and trust” in the enquiries Mr.
Aina was carrying out.
“The
FCO, the Governor’s Office and Mr. Aina are all well aware of the reasons for
my withdrawal,” Mr. Polaine said. “I stand by what I have told them, but can go
on as a complainant no longer.”
Attempts
to reach Mr. Aina for comment in the UK proved fruitless by press time
Thursday.
Legal
troubles
Mr.
Polaine’s written apology to Justice Henderson related to the role he played in
Operation Tempura that led to the judge’s arrest and search of his home and
office in September 2008.
After
a judicial review, then-visiting Justice Sir Peter Cresswell determined that
the search warrants used in that instance were not valid. The Crown agreed Mr.
Henderson’s arrest was unlawful. Attorneys for Justice Henderson sued and later
settled for CI$1.275 million in damages.
Justice
Henderson complained to the UK Bar Standards Board about the advice and conduct
of Mr. Polaine during the course of Operation Tempura.
Tempura,
which was an investigation into possible corruption in the Royal Cayman Islands
Police Service, was conducted by an undercover team of officers from UK Metropolitan
Police who arrived in Cayman in 2007.
Mr.
Polaine conceded that he did advise police investigators there were reasonable
grounds for the judge’s arrest on a charge of misconduct in public office, when
there was insufficient evidence to justify reasonable suspicion.
He
conceded he failed in his professional duty to disclose all available information
to Justice of the Peace Carson Ebanks when the application was made for search
warrants. Mr. Polaine apologised to Mr. Ebanks and agreed he should have
advised officers to make the application to a judge.
Mr.
Polaine accepted that he had not been called to the Cayman Bar and should have
confined his advice to English law.
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I think we should remember that Mr Polaine hardly helped himself. After the story broke he, by his own admission, fed information to a now-defunct daily newspaper that was re-written as editorial material in an unsuccessful attempt to justify his actions.
Bearing in mind that he has never been asked to refund any of his fees for the work undertaken for Operation Tempura or been subject to recovery action in respect of the damages paid as a result of his advice. I’d say he got off pretty lightly.
It’s also interesting that Mr Aina should have been brought in (presumably at public expense?) to investigate these complaints when my own lengthy concerns about the conduct of the two senior officers involved in Operation Tempura remains buried in files of the RCIPS. One rule for them, one rule for the rest of us?