LONDON/MANCHESTER: The Mail on Sunday lost a defamation case of around £1.2 million (Rs244 million) to a British born Pakistani taxi licencing officer Wajed Iqbal who was accused of acting as a “fixer” for paedophile tax drivers in Rochdale in an article written by journalist David Rose in May 2017.

The news of the British Pakistani taxi licencing officer’s victory against journalist David Rose and Associated Newspaper Limited (ANL) – the publishers of the Daily Mail, Mail Online and the Mail on Sunday – came two days after former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif held a press conference at the Carter Ruck offices to announce the formal court proceedings against David Rose and the ANL over last year’s article in which a story by David Rose accused Shahbaz Sharif of corrupting DFID funds and laundering money to the UK.

Defamation law specialist Mark Lewis of Patron Law, who is based in Southern Israel and London and represented Wajed Iqbal, told The News and Geo in an exclusive interview that his British Pakistani client from Nelson has won the landmark case and an out-of-court settlement has been reached with the Mail group after more than two years of litigation – ahead of start of the trial in April 2020 at the London High Court.

Mark Lewis, who is based both in Southern Israel and London, told Geo & The News: “I cannot avoid reaching the conclusion that the Mail on Sunday chose to defame Wajed Iqbal because he is a Muslim. They believed their own article, they chose to defend saying it was true. It wasn’t and they were forced to drop their defence. This was a classic case of anti-Muslim bigotry by a mainstream publisher to their very substantial readership. Regrettably, that readership has been misled into a prejudiced position. Newspapers have a responsibility to tell the truth to their readers, when truth is the casualty, the subject of the story is the victim.”

In the story headlined “Scandal of the mini-cab predators”, the Mail on Sunday alleged that Iqbal, a junior taxi-licencing official at South Ribble borough council, was responsible for renewing the licence of a local driver called John O’Sullivan, who had been found guilty of assaulting an autistic child by tying him up on a school run. The paper then went further by linking him, without any proof, with the much bigger scandal of sex grooming by Asian men. The paper claimed that in his previous job, Iqbal was a “fixer” for taxi drivers in Rochdale “at a time when some local drivers were raping underage girls as members of paedophile rings”.

The Mail on Sunday story had accused Iqbal of giving licences to taxi drivers of the same background to work in Rochdale at a time when they were sexually abusing children, mainly of white background. The scandal was famously linked with Asian men, mainly Pakistani men who were accused in English press of exploiting vulnerable English girls.

It’s understood that total case cost to Mail on Sunday stands at around £1.2 million including damages of £180,000 to Wajed Iqbal, legal costs of Mark Lewis and the Mail group’s own legal costs.

Wajed Iqbal, 44, had sued Mail on Sunday stating that his life had been ruined by the defamatory article, leaving him reliant on anti-depressants, jobless, and prevented from seeing his children. He had told the court that Mail on Sunday picked on him because of his Pakistani heritage, his racial background - linking him with a disgusting scandal to create a false story.

Speaking to this correspondent, Wajed Iqbal expressed joy at winning the case. He shared how his life was torn apart by the allegations by Mail on Sunday. He said David Rose was not interested in writing the truth and “had a set agenda in his mind when writing the story”.

He said, “I come from a hugely respectable Pakistani/Kashmiri background. My parents worked hard to educate us and gave us good upbringing. They came from Mirpur in late 60s to make a positive contribution in this society.

“In the current times, being called a paedophile is the worst allegation. We all have got mothers, daughters and sisters. My family is heavily involved in the local community and my elder brother Mohammad Iqbal is a Labour County Councillor and leads the Labour group in Pendle. When the allegations were published, my life and the lives of everyone around in my family crumbled.”

Wajed Iqbal said the story was ruthless. “There are stories which are partially true and some parts are false. This story by David Rose was completely false. The licencing department at South Ribble council had three people in it: myself and two white females. I was the most junior member of the department but only I was targeted by David Rose and Mail on Sunday because I was Pakistani and Muslim. No white colleague of mine was mentioned to fit the narrative agenda that the reporter and the paper had in mind. I told David Rose when he approached me that he should send questions to my employer and get a response from them. My employer was not contacted but the paper published lies and dirt to sell papers and make money.”

These reporters have seen a copy of the particulate of claim in which Wajed Iqbal maintained: “At the time of the initial publication, the Rochdale sex abuse scandal referred to in the article was uppermost in the public’s mind. On 16 May 2017 the television programme ‘Three Girls: What really happened in the Rochdale sex abuse scandal? was broadcast to millions of people, many of whom would have recently read the article complained of or would shortly read about it on MailOnline. The wholly unjustified linking of the claimant to this scandal has caused him huge upset. In particular, he is upset that people who read the article will conclude that by reason of the fact that he is a Muslim of Pakistani heritage, he is somehow being grouped in or connected with those taxi drivers in Rochdale who shared this heritage and who carried out a series of appalling sexual crimes against underage girls. The men who committed the relevant acts in Rochdale were well-known to be overwhelmingly Muslim and of Pakistani heritage.”

Following publication of the story, Iqbal was denounced by members of his own community and the security company where he worked part time told him he cannot be employed anymore after the publicity. He had to put up cameras around his house to avoid attacks. His contract was terminated by South Ribble Borough Council.

Mark Lewis filed the court proceedings for Wajed Iqbal in April 2018, nearly 11 months after the article was originally published. The Associated Newspapers Limited instructed three barristers and had Desmond Browne QC in the defence team. The Mail lawyers defended publication of the article stating that it was true and it was in the public interest to publish it but started negotiations in November 2019 once the trial date for April 2020 was set.

The Mail on Sunday, as part of the out of court agreement, has agreed to apologise to Iqbal; retract the claims, with a court statement making clear that Iqbal did not work exclusively as a taxi licencing official while at Rochdale and emphasising that he was never issued with any formal warning over his work at South Ribble council.

For two years, Iqbal said he couldn’t see his children. “I have lost my children because of this article by David Rose. I have won a big settlement and I am happy but I was driven to ruin by Mail on Sunday’s irresponsible journalism. My reputation in the local Asian Pakistani community was destroyed. Life will never be the same for me again. There are good and bad people in every community, religion and race. Pakistanis are both good and bad people but the way I was picked up only because I was a Muslim Pakistani speaks of the racism and hatred some people have in their minds. This also shows how racism and Islamophobia are rife in modern Britain today.” When contacted, David Rose said he cannot make a comment.