Keith Wood acted for one of the principle defendants in a major land banking fraud which was tried at Liverpool Crown Court. The case started in 2009 as a result of the collapse of the company; the directors were called for interview by the insolvency practise. It was then referred to the Fraud team to investigate and resulted in charges being laid against 12 defendants in March 2015 and finished last week after a 12 week trial.

The investigation concerned an allegation that an organised gang in 2006  had obtained  land  sites which at low value would never be granted planning permission, as it was green field sites situated in flood plains. Plans were then professionally drawn up with estate plans and plots were marketed as being potential investments and then sold on via dedicated sales teams. The trial involved 9 defendants, our client being fifth on the indictment as he was a principally the head of the sales team and thereafter became a director of one of the companies involved in the scheme.

The losses were substantial, involving some 269 individuals who had lost in total many millions of pounds.

The case involved a huge amount of complex material including analysis and presentation of banking evidence. Rory Keene, barrister from 5 Paper Buildings, worked with Keith on this and presented a position in court which meant that the Jury accepted our client’s account, which had been carefully put forward in the initial interviews by us some 18 months earlier. The result of the extreme hard work put in by both Rory and Keith meant that after 6 days of deliberation, our client was the last defendant to be acquitted. All those higher than him on the indictment had been convicted, and indeed two of those further down were also convicted.

The delighted defendant remarked that that Rory and Keith were his very own dream team and he could not have been looked after any better. The defendant would have lost everything on conviction, but as a former soldier and police officer he has kept his exemplary character and indeed of course has avoided a lengthy prison sentence and confiscation process.