Jonathan Page and Fahrid Chishty have concluded a twelve-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, representing a client charged with conspiracy to money launder. The client was alleged to have conspired to money launder in connection with the Essex and London Properties (“ELP”) Ponzi scheme, which between 2015-2018 defrauded 806 investors out of a total of £13.7million. Investors were led to believe their investments in a distressed properties redevelopment programme would deliver an 8% annual return, but their monies were instead dissipated via personal and company accounts including overseas in the UAE and Asia. The trial drew on the evidence of more than 120 witnesses and involved detailed forensic accounting and financial analyses. Jonathan and Fahrid were instructed by Amjad Hasan of Khans Solicitors. https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/five-men-found-guilty-more-6989505 https://www.law360.com/corporate-crime-uk/articles/1486318/jury-convicts-some-for-13-7m-ponzi-fraud-trial

Gerard Hillman successfully brought to an end the case against his client, CME, who was one of 22 defendants charged by North West Complex & Serious Case unit in Operation Wimbledon.  The case alleged conspiracy to supply drugs and money laundering, involving use of the EncroChat communications network. Following extensive representations, the prosecution conceded there was no realistic prospect of conviction following a further review of the evidence against Gerard’s client. Gerard was instructed by Fida Hussain of Jon Mail solicitors in Manchester.

Darren Snow, instructed by Gerry McDonald, EBR Attridge, recently acted for the Defendant in R v FS, at Wood Green Crown Court. The Defendant faced allegations of attempted murder and aggravated burglary. The Defendant had stabbed his ex-partner’s new boyfriend in the head during an unprovoked assault at his ex’s flat in the early hours of the 23rd August 2021. His Ex was 7 months pregnant at the time. He then escaped by jumping off a balcony and then attended his local police station to confess to stabbing someone. Following extensive work examining mental health and a background history of PTSD the Crown were persuaded to accept a plea to s.18 and aggravated burglary. The Defendant was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment.

Darren Snow recently chaired a police misconduct tribunal which had to consider the implications of a Hertfordshire police officer using the OnlyFans digital platform to sell sexually explicit images of himself. OnlyFans enables users to upload and sell content to other users. The former officer had used a pseudonym on the site and advertised sexually explicit images for sale. There was no evidence that he had made known he was a police officer nor that users accessing the site had become aware he was a police officer. Hertfordshire Police had been tipped off by a third party known to the officer. The tribunal had to consider the standards of policing which apply to all police officers to uphold high standards in their private lives and to avoid any activity that risks undermining public confidence in policing. The officer had resigned by the time of the hearing in April 2022. He admitted the allegations and that his behaviour had amounted to gross misconduct. The panel found that had he still been serving then the decision would be dismissal without notice and he was added to the barring list. The case was widely reported in the media: Policeman, 25, who posted on OnlyFans to fund a hair transplant is found guilty of gross misconduct | Daily Mail Online Cop posted X-Rated snaps on OnlyFans so he could raise cash for a HAIR TRANSPLANT (thesun.co.uk) Darren Snow is recognised by the Legal 500 as a leading junior in professional discipline work – he has a wealth of experience defending in healthcare, police and legal misconduct cases together with his work chairing disciplinary and sports safeguarding panels. Libertas has a thriving professional disciplinary practice – for any further information please contact our senior clerk, Mark King.

Welcome to 2022 and to the second edition of The Libertas Lens for the year. In this newsletter, we include 2 expert insight articles, links to recap and catch up on previous Webinars with video, update you on the latest news and case updates, and provide links to 3 upcoming Webinars from our expert team and special guest speakers. To view the edition click here To register for Libertas Lens and ensure you never miss out on our news, events and free webinars follow this link or click Join our Newsletter in the footer below.

The financial action task force released a report on 22 March 2022 on Money Laundering, terrorist financing and Migrant smuggling. The summary states: Every year, millions of migrants seek to escape regional conflict, political instability, persecution and poverty in search of a better future. They can risk their lives at the hands of migrant smugglers who see them as an opportunity to make financial gains and often have little regard for the migrants’ safety. The proceeds generated by migrant smuggling are estimated to exceed USD10 billion per year. This FATF report analyses the money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with migrant smuggling. While there has been an increase in migrant smuggling, many countries do not consider it a high-risk crime for money laundering and the associated financial flows are rarely investigated. The report identifies the most common methods to transfer and launder the proceeds of migrant smuggling, from hawala, integration of proceeds into legitimate business such as shops, travel agencies and transport companies, and the increasing use of professional money launderers. Using countries’ experiences, the report provides several recommendations and good practices that allow authorities to better trace criminal proceeds and enhance the effectiveness of money laundering investigations. The report highlights the need for countries to understand the money laundering risks they face from migrant smuggling and to proactively follow the money linked to this criminal activity, including through increased collaboration with national and international authorities and the private sector. The FATF calls on countries to proactively follow the money linked to migrant smuggling. Strengthening institutional, international and regional cooperation is an important step. There should be particular focus on supporting countries directly affected by migrant smuggling. To read Dr Felicity Gerry’s module on the links between migrant smuggling, cybercrime and human trafficking click the following link https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/tertiary/index.html Read Felicity’s related article https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8940396

All members of Libertas Chambers will be supporting the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) policy of not accepting returned Advocate Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) cases from Monday 11th April 2022. AGFS cases now produce fees which are less than half of what was paid 20 years ago, without taking into account inflation. In those 20 years, inflation has aggregated the cost of living to 80% more than in 2002. The fees are intolerable and cannot sustain a sufficient number of able criminal barristers who are willing to do legally aided criminal work. The retention rate at the Criminal Bar is now hitting crisis levels. There are now not enough barristers nationally to cover all the work. Successive governments have operated as though the future problems are just that, in the future, and so not their short-term political concern. We have warned the MOJ year on year for decades of the pending crisis that is now unfolding daily. We have repeatedly been promised increases but instead have seen cut after cut, and purported increases which were nothing more than disguised cuts. At a time when inflation will hit 10% this year, fees continue to decline even when taking into account the paltry offer made by the Secretary of State for Justice. We recognise that this will cause inconvenience to our solicitors and anxiety for defendants. However, we are convinced that if action is not taken now to halt the decline, it will be too late to reverse the decline in the future. We thank our solicitors for their patience in the weeks and months ahead. Simon Csoka QC Head of Chambers

Fahrid Chishty represented a client at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court in connection with Part V POCA proceedings. The client was alleged by the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit (NTFIU) to have received over £140,000 into his personal and business accounts which represented the proceeds of a series of frauds perpetrated against the Kuwait Health Office, a wing of the Embassy of Kuwait in London. Fahrid and his instructing solicitors, Connaught Law Ltd, submitted detailed representations to the Applicant authorities, setting out the client’s position that he was a legitimate businessman. On 28th March 2022, Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court made orders under Section 303Z4 POCA to set aside the AFOs against three of the client’s accounts, with the Applicant confirming that the monies, on analysis, did not represent recoverable property. As a result, more than £90,000 will be immediately released and returned to the client.