Case Reports: Sansbury Campbell - Solicitors

Case Reports

R -v- P

This Prosecution was brought by the Serious Fraud Office and Police jointly. Our client was one of many people prosecuted as a result of an intervention in a Legal Aid firm of solicitors. The total extent of the alleged fraud was quantified at somewhere in the region of ten million pounds. The case was said to be one of the largest ever prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office. We demonstrated that we were able to master vast amounts of paper and also material accessible only via computer. The trial lasted for some seven months: we were able to demonstrate the deployment of adequate resources to cope with a trial of this size and length and in addition we had the expertise to deal with the complex legal issues which arose.

R -v- L

Our client was charged with fraudulent trading following the collapse of a savings and investment company. He was prosecuted by the DTI following directorship disqualification proceedings. The loss to investors was approximately £500,000. Many small and medium-sized investors lost life savings. The case was described by the DTI as a "mini Barlow Clowes". The case involved considerable documentation and legal and factual complexity.

We were able to negotiate with the prosecution to the extent that our client's admission of guilt was limited and he did not lose his liberty.

R -v- B Plc

We acted for a Plc following the tragic death of a workman on a building site controlled by them. Initially directors and other officers of the company were interviewed under caution for offences of corporate manslaughter. We advised during those interviews and no proceedings for corporate manslaughter were taken. Proceedings were however commenced under Health and Safety legislation. We were able to negotiate with the prosecution to minimise the charges to which our client company had to plead guilty. In the event the penalties which they received, following our diligent preparation and presentation of the case to Court, was regarded as considerably less than had been expected.

R -v- J

Our client was a serving SBS officer charged with conspiracy to import some 4 tonnes of cannabis with a street value of approximately fourteen million pounds. The drugs were found on a boat which was intercepted off the coast of Portugal by the Royal Navy. The operation was a joint one involving the National Crime Squad and Customs & Excise. A vast amount of documentation and unused material was involved in the Prosecution. Enquiries abroad were conducted. The matter ultimately collapsed prior to the trial proper commencing when the Judge, accepting the defence arguments, found that the prosecution was an abuse of process.

R -v- H

We defended a twelve year old boy who was charged with the murder of his six month old baby brother by repeated stabbing. The case attracted national and international publicity. The case was effectively the first of its kind since the Judgment given in the case of T and V -v- United Kingdom (the Bulger case). We were effectively participating in forging completely novel areas of law and in considering human rights and mental health issues of the utmost difficulty. We were commended for our case preparation by the trial Judge, the distinguished adolescent psychiatrist Dr Susan Bailey and by our QC, Baroness Helena Kennedy.

R -v- K

A man with no previous convictions was charged with murder following a shooting in Birmingham. The chief evidence involved a statement made by a former co-accused. It was through our dogged pursuit of unused material regarding contact between this witness and police officers that we were able to expose an identification procedure which had been deliberately conducted in flagrant contravention of the relevant codes of practice. As a direct result of our enquiries, a murder charge against our client was dropped before the trial commenced.

R -v- V

We acted for a man charged with money laundering offences involving an alleged multi party conspiracy to conceal the proceeds of crime through a number of lap dancing and other clubs. After mastering a vast amount of written and taped material, the prosecution decided not to proceed against our client.

R v W

Representing a defendant charged with several forms of fraud as Company Accountant. Included alleged fraud on Welsh Development Agency. Total value of fraud alleged to be approx £20 million. Client acquitted after 2 trials lasting some 6 months.