Mohamed Taranissi welcomes Court's ruling of unlawful behaviour by the HFEA

IVF practitioner Mohamed Taranissi today won an extraordinary legal victory, five months after representatives of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, accompanied by the police, raided his clinics armed with search warrants that have now been ruled unlawful.

The High Court has quashed both the search warrants obtained by the HFEA and awarded Mr Taranissi his costs.

The legal proceedings had been due to go to a full hearing in early July after a judge granted permission in March 2007 for Mr Taranissi to proceed with the judicial review on the grounds that “the action of the HFEA in applying for and executing the warrants on 15 January 2007 was unjustified, disproportionate and unlawful and the evidence relied upon in support of the application was seriously defective” and, in part, “unfair and highly misleading”.

In consenting to today's order, the HFEA expressly acknowledged that the evidence supporting the application for the search warrants as set out in the witness statement presented under oath to magistrates by Angela McNab, its Chief Executive, was inadequate, that it did not give a complete or accurate picture and that the warrants were therefore unlawfully obtained.

Mr Taranissi said

"I am delighted by today's result, which gives us precisely what we sought in going to Court. The events in January of this year were hugely distressing for those of our patients and staff who witnessed them, happening as they did a few hours before a Panorama programme about me. I hope that, in the period to come, much more will emerge as regards the making of that programme."

"I am obviously very pleased about the outcome of the case, but continue to be dismayed that our regulatory body saw fit to present to the magistrates on the day of the raids information described by a judge at an earlier hearing as seriously defective and highly misleading. This is the third instance in the last six months of the HFEA having to accept that its information released to the public about us was incorrect”.

"The cost to the tax-payer of this exercise must be enormous. It grieves me that money, estimated to be in excess of £1 million, which could have been spent on research or genuine issues of patient safety has instead ended up in the pockets of the lawyers. The whole episode raises serious public interest questions about the way the HFEA acted in this case."

Notes: Mohammed Taranissi operates the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC). The ARGC has for many years been the most successful IVF clinic in the country. The HFEA is a statutory body and regulates the IVF sector in the UK.