Listed for many years by Chambers & Partners in Fraud. Peter is a corporate fraud specialist and is regularly instructed to defend in complex and multi-handed fraud and money-laundering cases, frequently with a multi-jurisdictional aspect. High profile cases include successfully defending in what is acknowledged to be the SFO’s costliest failure – “Operation Holbein” in which the SFO alleged that certain leading international pharmaceutical companies and their chief executives had formed a criminal cartel and had conspired to defraud the NHS by fixing the price and restricting the supply of antibiotics used by millions of people in this country.
The case ran for three years during its complex interlocutory stages including going to the Court of Appeal on two occasions and also the House of Lords. Peter has conducted a number of MTIC-VAT fraud trials and was instructed to defend the head of what was said to be an eastern European criminal organisation who removed millions of pounds from online customers of Barclays, HSBC, RBS and Lloyds using an extremely sophisticated “Trojan” virus described by the FBI as “arguably the most dangerous yet”. Instructed in 2012/13 in two of the largest Bureau de Change money laundering/fraud cases at Southwark Crown Court (£131 million and the other £180 million.) Currently instructed in a “high-profile” fraud referred to the Welsh Financial Crime Unit by the Welsh Assembly Government.
Cases
R v P & Others: This was a multi-million pound construction fraud which commenced in October 2002. When the jury finally returned their verdicts in late February 2004, after some two weeks deliberation (client was one of two defendants acquitted), it became the longest trial in British legal history. The case, with its complexity of issues and vast detail, is already being regarded and quoted as one of the finest examples of how a jury can, and should continue, to try serious fraud cases.
R v S & Others: A former Superintendent of the West Yorkshire Police was alleged to have been the principal in a substantial music industry counterfeiting/copyright fraud. The defence case included allegations of gross impropriety against many of his former colleagues in the police force and gross misuse of the court’s procedure by the police and prosecution counsel originally instructed. During the protracted preliminary abuse of process hearing the defence managed to secure and almost unprecedented amount of confidential internal police memoranda and telephone data.
R v C & Others: Known as the “Martimex” fraud. It was the successor fraud to the Ashcroft Conservatories/Marque One case and had similar features. More than one of the fraudulent companies involved in the former were put forward fraudulently as creditors of Martimex in the company’s fraudulent liquidation.
R v M & Others: The “Ashcroft Conservatories Ltd and Marque One” fraud. This was another Watchdog expose of fraudulent trading on a very substantial scale. The case involved serial deception on the part of the defendants who used “front” companies which were fraudulently liquidated successively.
R v C & Others: A massive and protracted £30m VAT/Anti Dumping fraud trial. Aspects of the case included (a) a complex web of inter-trading companies in the EEC, Hong Kong and mainland China, and (b) money laundering to Swiss banks, the Far East, and elsewhere.
R v O & Others: The country-wide Fireguard (UK) Ltd/European Environmental Controls Ltd fraudulent trading case which was “exposed” by Watchdog and also by a number of other similar investigative-type television programmes in different parts of the UK. The case was stopped prior to the jury being sworn after ten weeks of legal argument.
R v M: A high profile trial of a well known Cardiff solicitor who was charged, with others, with conspiracy to defraud. The Defendant suffered what the defence contended was a nervous breakdown some months into the trial whereupon the Criminal Procedure Insanity and Unfitness to Plead Act 1991 was invoked. The prosecution who, in 1996 and again in 1997, disputed Defendant’s disability attempted to re-list the trial in 1997; this was successfully resisted by the defence. A permanent stay was ordered.
R v W & Another: The lengthy trial of two solicitors charged with conspiracy to defraud. The nature of the defence case necessitated a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the Law Society’s Rules and Regulations relating to the financial management of a solicitor’s practice and to a solicitor’s duties and professional responsibilities; when acting for property developers. Both the prosecution and defence had expert witnesses. The Defendant was acquitted at the conclusion of the prosecution case and also successfully fought the subsequent disciplinary proceedings before the Law Society obtaining costs against that body.
