Gibraltar Corruption

Is there still Rule of Law in Gibraltar? Is there corruption in the local police?

Are employees' Human Rights protected? Is there a mafia in Gibraltar?

How corrupt are the Courts in Gibraltar? Is Entain a bad employer?

Latest news and additions:

   Can the Royal Gibraltar Police be trusted?

      Is the Court's Registrar sabotaging my appeal to the Privy Council?

         Should Supreme Court Judge Yeats have recused himself for bias?

            Is Gibraltar's "Anti-Corruption Authority" a joke?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. This website tells the story of the last 8 years of my life in Gibraltar, fighting a David against Goliath fight against the online gaming company Entain and their powerful lawyers from Hassans International Law Firm. I'm standing up for myself and many others in the same situation. My 7 year battle in Tribunals and Courts shows widespread flaws which could, in theory, severely undermine worker's rights and potentially scare good employees away from Gibraltar. I have no "smoking gun" that there is corruption in Gibraltar. What I do have, are a lot of situations which seem out of order, which I have complained about and which were never remedied. The fact that there is an endless list of such "irregularities", raises very serious questions.

My story can be best described as: justice delayed is justice denied. As I cannot work because of my depression, caused by bullying at work, I ran out of savings. For the last 3 years, I have to live of £40.50/week from the Social Services Agency. To conduct a court case on such a limited budget is close to impossible, especially against Entain, one of the world's biggest gaming companies earning billions of pounds to pay top-lawyers with. This lack of Equality of Arms in court is a breach of my Human Rights as it makes proceedings unfair. I have brought this up many times in the Employment Tribunal, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. They all brushed this Human Rights issue under the carpet. While Entain keeps raking in the billions, I have not been able to pay rent for some time after running out of savings. At present an attempt is being made to make me homeless, which would further sabotage the ongoing legal proceedings to the advantage of Entain. Could it be that Entain is abusing my Human Rights to make an example of me for their other employees, to convince them that taking Entain to the Emplyment Tribunal would destroy the employee?

In this website I will show you all the evidence that could possibly prove that my employment court case is likely the biggest miscarriage of justice in Gibraltar's history. Huge amounts of tax payer's money have already been spent in what looks like attempts to block me from winning a very simple case of bullying at work, victimisation and unfair dismissal. Why is access to justice made so difficult? While I worked at Entain, there was a lot of bullying in my team, which was divided in 2 camps. I was first bullied by 4 team members and later as well by my team leader until, after almost a year, I got ill with depression and anxiety. The fact that someone gets a life-changing mental illness from issues at work, shows the extremely high level of those issues, making it undeniable that something went seriously wrong. In the 7 years of my uphill battle for justice, no Judge has ever considered this fact, it keeps being pushed under the carpet. Entain never dealt with me as a vulnerable person and the court case against me was converted by Entain in a cruel war of attrition, weaponising my mental illness against me in an obvious attempt to wear me out mentally and financially. I have complained on countless occasions in the courts about this, but it has always been completely ignored. One might wonder why the Employment Tribunal, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal never said anything about this unfairness. Could it be that they are under political pressure not to upset Entain, one of Gibraltar's biggest employers? The Hassans lawyers representing Entain have made it always abundantly clear that their aggressive and brutal approach towards my person and my claims was according to their instructions from Entain.

The quickest way you can find out for yourself what has gone wrong with my court case, is by comparing my witness statement (available online and as a PDF file) with the Employment Tribunal's judgment (PDF file). After comparing these 2 documents, I concluded that the judgment contains an endless number of "mistakes" and the Tribunal Chairman came to many impossible conclusions and decisions. The number of "mistakes" in the judgment is so very high that one might wonder if there was not some level of intentionality in it.

Is it possbile to have corruption in the Employment Tribunal in Gibraltar? The way Gibraltar's Employment Tribunal has been set up is remarkable. There were no full time employed Tribunal Judges or Chairpersons. Instead a handful of local lawyers, running their own law firms or working for a law firm, were on a list of “volunteers” who occasionally played Judge for a very minimal fee, £100 for writing a judgment and £200 for a hearing day, way below their regular hourly rates. Such ridiculously low pay is disincentivising and does not attract quality lawyers. The reality is that in Gibraltar all 230 or so lawyers know each other very well. When some of these individuals then occasionally function as a Tribunal Chairperson, this could create a system which is open to amateurism, abuses, favouritism, bias, corruption and political interference. There are others who confirm that this Tribunal system is flawed.

The biggest law firm by far, and heavily dominating the Gibraltarian legal market, is Hassans International Law Firm. The influence of this law firm is enormous. 3 out of Gibraltar's 9 Government Ministers are from Hassans: Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, Minister for Justice Nigel Feetham (who visited Entain twice (why?)) and Minister for Business Gemma Arias Vasquez. These 3 Hassans Government Ministers dominate the Ministries dealing with Entain, which puts them in positions where they could possibly manipulate a court case by pulling some strings or whispering in people's ears. Judge Restano from the Supreme Court comes from Hassans (1 of 4 Judges), as well as Stipendiary Magistrate Charles Bonfante. The Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) is the "independent" statutory body responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in Gibraltar, including disciplinary proceedings against lawyers. The first CEO of the LSRA was David Dumas, from Hassans, who as well represented Entain against my claims. Could this explain why my formal complaint about professional misconduct by a Hassans lawyer was never dealt with? The second LSRA CEO is Francis Muscat, who as well worked for Hassans. The Gibraltar Police Authority runs the Police Complaints Board and is chaired by Peter Montegriffo, from Hassans. It cannot be a surprise that the Senior Partner of Hassans, James Levy, is locally nicknamed: "the real Chief Minister of Gibraltar". Do you now understand why I called my court case a David against Goliath fight?

There is obviously a lot of circumstancial evidence which could indicate that some level of corruption in Gibraltar's judiciary possibly exists, but how could Entain benefit from this? There was a direct link between Entain and the Government. Peter Isola, the Senior Partner at the local law firm Isolas, joined Entain's Board of Directors in February 2016 for 6 years and while I was employed by Entain. He served on the company’s Audit, Remuneration and ESG Committees which dealt with Entain's personnel health, safety and welbeing, which includes bullying at work. Since July 2013 his brother, Albert Isola, from the same law firm Isolas, was Minister for Financial Services and Gaming, appointed by the Chief Minister, who worked for Hassans. Albert Isola was a Partner at Isolas since 1985. There was a direct line between Entain and Gibraltar's Government. These are no secrets, this is very much in the public domain and every lawyer who could potentially represent me, is aware of it. Could this explain why I never found a lawyer who was willing to represent me in court and fight against Hassans?

Since I appealed the Employment Tribunal judgment, I encountered what seems like an endless list of apparent obstructions, sabotage and unsavoury practices making that, almost 7 years later, my simple and easy employment case is still ungoing, which is a breach of my Human Rights. The level of potential shenanigans I encountered in the Employment Tribunal, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal is so high that I find it difficult to attribute it to mere coincidences and occasional incompetence. It could well be that I'm the victim of a secret Government policy aimed at keeping employers, specifically big gaming companies like Entain, happy by making sure that employees who go to the Employment Tribunal are forced to give up on their valid claims by making them run out of money or make it mentally too hard for them. In other words, unscrupulous employers would be able to do as they like. Indications that this policy could exist, can be found in some press articles about failings in Gibraltar's legal system.

The big question remains unanswered: is there corruption in Gibraltar? Via the following link, you can find a list of articles about corruption in Gibraltar in the local and international press.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), via Gibraltar's Governor, is responsible for the police and judiciary, those do not come under Gibraltar's Government. This is the reason why I have written several polite emails to the FCDO, and the Governor, to expose what I see as potential maladministration. At a certain point, the FCDO got fed up with my emails and sent me a rude reply, asking me to leave them alone. This makes that, if there is indeed corruption in Gibraltar, the FCDO allows it to happen. "The Governor’s responsibility is to ensure peace, order, and good governance, which is a UK constitutional obligation. Those UK constitutional obligations can become in practice the responsibility of the Governor, but only if the FCDO so decides. Therefore 'the Governor is a puppet on strings controlled by the FCDO'", the words of Robert Vasquez KC who has a blog Llanito World about such subjects.

All information published in this website is in the public domain or reflects the opinion of the author. As such this website's content is protected by Art 10. of the Gibraltar Constitution Order 2006, Protection of freedom of expression:
"Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference."