Paul Mason, Consultant Solicitor, represented an individual accused of racial harassment: The client faced trial on indictment and the alleged victim was a City solicitor whom Paul’s client had instructed in litigation worth millions of pounds. That litigation went disastrously wrong for the client, and relations with the City firm of lawyers deteriorated to such an extent that a criminal complaint of racial harassment was brought against him. However, the client was acquitted unanimously by the jury, largely as a result of Paul’s painstaking approach to disclosure of documents, which revealed a few glaring and fundamental anomalies in the Crowns case. The case attracted Nationwide publicity.
- The excellent Richard Demczak, of our Oxford Office, continues with his incredible run of acquittals:
a) Richard successfully represented an individual who faced trial at Oxford Crown Court following charges of administering a poison/noxious substance to Police; a successful legal argument resulted in a decision by the CPS to withdraw the proceedings at Court. The case attracted National publicity.
b) The same client also faced a supplemental charge of witness intimidation, which the client denied. Richard instructed a specialist computer expert to analyse the large amount of computer evidence. Richard then served that report upon the CPS (which supported our clients defence completely), together with the Defence Statement. Upon receipt of both documents the CPS discontinued the case. This is yet another example of the successful pro-active defence work at which this firm excels.
c) Richard also successfully defended a man with severe learning difficulties who faced 15 allegations of historic sexual abuse at the Crown Court, many of these charges were over 14 years old. The case involved the use of an intermediary and a psychiatrist because of our clients learning difficulties. The client was adamant that he was entirely innocent of these charges, which included multiple counts of rape, six counts of sexual activity with a child, assault by penetration and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. Both Richard and Counsel were instructed and visited the multiple sites at which it was alleged that the criminal activity occurred, and it quickly appeared that there were fundamental flaws in the Prosecution case. The jury quickly returned a unanimous verdict of Not Guilty on all counts.
- Sean and James Reilly continue their winning streak:
a) They successfully defended an individual who facing trial, who raised the absolute defence of self defence to a very serious allegation of wounding with intent (Section 18). The client was quickly and unanimously acquitted by the jury.
b) The Reilly brothers also secured the acquittal of an individual who faced an allegation of possession of a a large amount of class A drugs with intent to supply (the drugs were found in the back of the van in which our client was driving). The Crown’s case was heavily reliant upon telephone evidence, which had been served upon us at a very late stage. James Reilly (solicitor advocate) successfully argued before the trial Judge that the evidence was more prejudicial than probative and that essentially the defence were ambushed by the late service of this material (which had been sought several times by us from the CPS). The Judge agreed with the legal submission and he ruled that the telephone evidence was inadmissible, this resulted in the CPS then offering ‘no evidence’ and the client was immediately discharged.
- Siobhain Egan successfully defended:
a) a City solicitor working for a magic circle firm accused of dishonesty and fraudulent behaviour.
b) An accountant working within the charitable sector facing allegations of systematic fraud.
Siobhain has a particularly successful niche practice defending professionals (medical, legal, accountancy, City financial and FCA regulated individuals) facing regulatory, professional disciplinary, fraud, money laundering, tax and criminal investigations (including sexual allegations) and prosecutions.
- Siobhain also deals with Cybercrime fraud recovery: She works with a firm of leading computer forensic specialists who deal with cyber crime, cyber fraud and ransomware. They advise companies and individuals who have been defrauded of large sums of money. Together they represented and advised a businessman who had been defrauded of £250,000. Working closely with the client and the authorities in both the UK and South East Asia, the alleged fraudsters were arrested in both countries. A very large sum of money was frozen by the South East Asian authorities, Siobhain will work with those authorities and corresponding lawyers in that Country in order to recover our clients stolen monies.
