Anyone reading your review of the book by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel, Dead in the Water (“Fire, fraud and murder”, Life & Arts, April 30), would suppose that the spectacular attempted fraud by the Greek shipowner who faked a Somali pirate attack on his own vessel was only exposed in London legal proceedings by the tenacious efforts of two private investigators. These former policemen apparently galvanised the defeatist and pusillanimous insurers — and their equally dejected lawyers — into fighting the case and reluctantly deploying the decisive evidence of wrongdoing which the pair had unearthed.

It’s a good story. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The lead underwriters were not resigned to “the inevitability of settling”, but were from the start determined to resist the claim. Their advocates, solicitors and experts supported this view. They eventually exposed the shipowner‘s deceit by the painstaking methods tried and tested in previous scuttling cases. Success was not achieved through the efforts and advice of the investigators who are seemingly both the heroes of the book and the principal sources of its claims.

I should know how the case was won, as I headed the insurers’ legal team for the four years leading up to and throughout the 52-day trial. The proof of the pudding is Mr Justice Teare’s detailed judgment (publicly available), which explains all the reasons for his decision, which of the underwriters’ arguments prevailed and why.

Your reviewer is perhaps to be excused for not having read this judgment; he no doubt assumed the accuracy of the book.

Jonathan Gaisman QC
London EC4, UK