Clinic raid warrants ruled unlawful
Updated on 28 June 2007
Search warrants used by a watchdog to raid the clinics of fertility doctor Mohamed Taranissi have been ruled unlawful.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said it accepted that a statement used to obtain the warrants was not "legally watertight".
Mr Taranissi, who was the subject of a BBC Panorama programme broadcast on the same day as the raids, had already won permission to mount a High Court challenge over the legality of the warrants. He had argued that they were obtained by the HFEA on the basis of "incomplete and misleading" evidence.
The search warrants were used by HFEA inspectors, accompanied by police, to search the test-tube baby doctor's London clinics - the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC) and the Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI).
Mr Taranissi is medical director and legally responsible for supervising IVF and other fertility treatments at the clinics under the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
At the conclusion of a judicial review, the HFEA told the High Court it consented to the warrants being quashed.
A HFEA spokeswoman said: "The HFEA has informed the High Court that it accepts that the statement on which it applied for warrants to search the ARGC and RGI clinics on 15 January 2007 was not legally water tight, because it did not give a complete picture of the regulatory history.
"It follows that the warrants were unlawfully obtained and the Authority has consented to the quashing of the warrants."
She added: "We would wish to stress that the HFEA acted in good faith, and on advice. Our aim is to protect patient safety and ensure patient choice and we regret any distress that may have been caused to Mr Taranissi's patients."
The HFEA said the decision did not affect the forthcoming consideration of whether to renew licences for the ARGC and RGI. But Mr Taranissi, one of Britain's richest doctors with a personal fortune estimated at £38 million, said he was "delighted" with the result.
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