UK police have been called in to lead an investigation into a data breach in a public inquiry concerning alleged corruption at the top of Gibraltar’s government. The development is the latest twist in the inquiry, which is to hear explosive allegations by the British overseas territory’s former police chief, Ian McGrail. He claims that he was pressed into taking early retirement after seeking to execute a search warrant against someone who had a close relationship with Gibraltar’s chief minister, Fabian Picardo. Royal Gibraltar police (RGP) have already arrested two people in connection with the alleged data breach but, with the force’s ex-commissioner at the heart of the inquiry, they asked their UK counterparts for support in the interests of “transparency”. A RGP spokesperson said: “The criminal investigation into the alleged data breach is continuing. As a result of our request to the UK’s National Police Coordination Centre for Mutual Aid, a senior investigating officer from the Police Service of Northern Ireland has been briefed and provided with all the necessary documents to allow him to lead the investigation.” The suspected breach relating to the inquiry’s documents is considered a matter of “the utmost seriousness and urgency” and has led to the postponement of the inquiry’s main hearing, which was scheduled to take place in March. Even before the breach, hacking was already an issue the inquiry had to contend with. The search warrant under scrutiny related to alleged hacking and sabotage of the national security centralised intelligence system (NSCIS) and into a conspiracy to defraud Bland Ltd, the private company that was operating the system, in order to benefit another company, 36 North Limited. Picardo, a barrister who is a king’s counsel, was a part owner of 36 North Limited, which has also held security contracts with the government. McGrail’s statement of facts to the inquiry says the chief minister “therefore also stood to gain financially from the alleged fraud”. In January, Gibraltar’s attorney general issued a decision not to prosecute with respect to three men, including one of the territory’s most senior civil servants, who were charged with conspiracy to defraud Bland. The government’s statement of facts to the inquiry says Picardo’s intervention in relation to the alleged fraud was “to ensure that those who may have wished to benefit did not do so, by ensuring that the NCIS contract remained with the incumbent, Bland and only with them (sic)”. It further says that McGrail chose to retire because he knew he had lost the confidence of the governor – not Picardo – for reasons unconnected to the fraud investigation, known as operation Delhi. These reasons, which predate operation Delhi, are said to include his handling of previous investigations and his “fractured and almost hostile relationship” with the Gibraltar Police Federation, which represents officers in the territory. The inquiry’s provisional list of issues includes all these matters. In relation to the fraud investigation, it states the question as: “Did the AG [attorney general] and/or CM [chief minister] place any or any inappropriate pressure on Mr McGrail regarding the investigation or otherwise interfere with the investigation, and in particular the decision to execute the search warrants?” The government parties are being represented by Sir Peter Caruana KC, himself a former chief minister of Gibraltar. McGrail is being represented by well-known human rights barristers, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC and Adam Wagner, from Doughty Street Chambers in London. Gallagher acted for the family of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia at the public inquiry into her assassination, which found last year that the state of Malta was culpable. The inquiry, chaired by former UK high court judge Peter Openshaw, who presided over the trial of the police chief in charge during the Hillsborough disaster, has commissioned a report by an expert IT forensics/cybersecurity firm into the nature and extent of the alleged data breach, which is expected to be completed in the new year. The outcome of the inquiry is likely to have a significant impact on Gibraltar’s reputation, which is already tarnished. In June, it was added to the global money-laundering watchdog’s list of “jurisdictions with increased monitoring” and “strategic deficiencies”.