A YORK rail firm sub-contracted to carry out track maintenance put forward a “preposterous” sabotage theory after seven people died when a train hit faulty points and derailed, a lawyer representing victims’ families told an inquest.

Jarvis’s suggestion that points at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, had been tampered with prior to the crash in May 2002 was “wholly untenable”, John Hendy QC told the inquest into the accident yesterday.

Another lawyer suggested Jarvis had “put up” former Transport Minister Steven Norris – then one of the firm’s directors – to “make comments” to the media about the sabotage theory. Jurors heard a recording of an interview Mr Norris gave shortly after the crash in which he said there was “compelling evidence” that sabotage was “a very distinct possibility”. Judge Michael Findlay Baker QC, who is presiding over the inquest, has told jurors experts concluded the “root cause” of the crash was the failure of a set of points south of Potters Bar station. Jurors heard yesterday that Network Rail and Jarvis had accepted responsibility for the crash in 2004.