Abstract
The never‐ending Guinness saga has been given a fresh turn of events with the Home Office's decision to refer the cases of Anthony Parnes, Gerald Ronson, Jack Lyons and Ernest Saunders to the Court of Appeal, on the grounds of non‐disclosure by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecution of evidence material to the defence in Guinness I, in 1990. The Guinness convictions, once proclaimed as the SFO's finest victory, could now turn out to be a political minefield for a Government and criminal justice system already embarrassed by a series of unsafe verdicts. Comparisons with the Guildford Four, however, ring hollow, and the Guinness defendants could yet give new meaning to the phrase ‘travesty of justice’, with potential compensation claims of £30–40m for loss of liberty, earnings and reputation, if they are successful. Only the anger and disbelief of the general public are testimony to the fact that not all of us are prone to severe memory lapse.
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