Michael Goold and Catherine Rose of the Garden Court Financial Crime & Confiscation Team successfully represented the second defendant in a multi-handed trial involving six defendants. Counsel were instructed by Panayiotis Symeou of Faradays Solicitors.
The Crown alleged that Michael and Catherine’s client was the upstream supplier to a million-pound Conspiracy to Fraudulently Evade Duty on cigarettes which were counterfeit or intended for foreign markets.
The evidence against their client included observation evidence by undercover officers of handovers of apparent boxes of tobacco products, phone contact with alleged co-conspirators, data from the client’s Sat Nav device linking him to a premises used as a storehouse for the conspiracy, and cash seized from his home and car of around £165,000, as well as around £250,000 in bank accounts attributed to the client.
Defence counsel submitted that their client was a prolific and successful “arbitrage” gambler, which accounted both for the cash and for his movements. Michael and Catherine scrutinised over 50,000 pages of detailed financial and gambling material to prepare and present their client’s defence.
The case also involved complex legal arguments led by Michael and Catherine, and adopted by other defence teams, regarding the scope of fraudulent evasion of duty where the alleged offenders played no role in the importation or initial evasion of duty.
Following a nine-week trial, the jury unanimously acquitted their client.
