Jeffrey acted for a woman who was being investigated for serious money laundering and offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
It was alleged by investigators that she had willingly allowed her husband to launder large sums of money through her bank accounts and through the purchase of various assets.
Upon meeting his client, Jeffrey became convinced that she was the victim of “battered women’s syndrome” and immediately instructed a psychologist, one of the country’s leading experts on the subject, to assess our client and prepare a report on her.
Upon receipt of that report, which confirmed Jeffrey’s suspicions, he then wrote a detailed letter of representations to the officer in the case asking that they consider this report when deciding to prosecute.
Sadly, these days it is impossible to contact a CPS case lawyer at an early stage of proceedings, so the officer liaised with them and they were asked to consider their duties pursuant to the Code of Practice, and whether it could be in the public interest to prosecute her.
After many months of deliberation, the CPS agreed with Jeffrey’s submissions and all proceedings against her were dismissed.
It takes great skill and experience to immediately recognise an important issue that can affect a client’s case, and even more skill to persuade the CPS not to proceed with serious criminal proceedings at such an early stage.
It was also possible to do this because our client’s family paid for private representation and for the report. For those who have assets restrained or cannot access private monies, the sad truth is that there is no public funding for pre-charge representations, and so in that case the matter would have proceeded to trial.
Both our client and her family were delighted with the result.