Tom Wainwright of the Garden Court Crime Team successfully represented the appellant, BGV, instructed by Philippa Southwell and Nadia Wahid of Southwell & Partners Solicitors.
On 4 February 2025, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of the appellant, BGV, for Possessing a False Identity Document With Intent after seventeen years.
On 11 April 2008, BGV had pled guilty to the offence after he was arrested trying to leave the UK using a passport in someone else’s name. He was sentenced the same day to twelve months imprisonment.
On 8 March 2022, the Single Competent Authority (SCA) found conclusive grounds for determining that BGV had been subject to trafficking and modern slavery, having been brought to the UK and held for five years, in order to carry out forced labour.
The Respondent Crown Prosecution Service did not accept BGV’s account, upon which the SCA’s conclusion was based, and he was called to give evidence before the Court of Appeal. Having heard his evidence, the Court agreed with Tom’s submissions that the admitted inconsistencies in BGV’s account could be explained by the circumstances of his trafficking, and the consequences of having been held in modern slavery. It was further accepted that there was other evidence which supported his account and justified the Competent Authority’s conclusion.
As a result, the Court of Appeal held that had this information been known at the time of the original proceedings, the appellant would not have been prosecuted and the conviction was therefore quashed.
The judgment is reported at R v BGV [2025] EWCA Crim 65.