Fraud (Prosecution)

R v Jonathan Denton and others; Andrew Luckhurst and others; Tony Webster and Adrian Dunn

Operation ‘Circus 2’

This fraud investigation was one of the biggest ever undertaken by North Yorkshire Police.  The defendants were from London, Cheshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands. It took three years to investigate.

The investigation began in 2015 following complaints made to Action Fraud about two ‘High Yield’ investment schemes being promoted by Simon Oakley [Oakley] and Jonathan Denton [Denton]. Oakley was an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA). Denton was a Solicitor at Lord Locke in London.

Following an earlier investigation [Operation ‘Circus’], the authorities received reports that indicated the involvement of Oakley, who had already attracted police attention during that inquiry. Those reports suggested that Oakley was collaborating with Denton in promoting an investment scheme suspected of being dubious and potentially fraudulent.

As part of Operation ‘Circus 2’, investigators conducted interviews with witnesses from the UK, Europe, the US, and the Far East. They examined bank records associated with dozens of individuals and companies. They uncovered multiple ‘Ponzi’ investment schemes.

The investigation also led the police to two corrupt financial services companies run by Andrew Luckhurst [Luckhurst] and his partner, Nicholas Shaw [Shaw].

The defendants were charged with offences including fraud by abuse of position, fraud by false representation and money laundering.

The investors believed they were dealing with honest professionals, and were investing their money in a safe, virtually risk-free scheme, which would net them a large return. Their trust was abused because the reality was that, although some people received some of their money back, many got nothing.

Some of the victims were wealthy investors, but many were investing their pensions and life savings and lost everything in the scam. The effect on them, and those close to them, was devasting both financially and personally.

The investors lost around £30 million.

A trial of some defendants started in 2020, but it was abandoned after 10 weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. It recommenced in the spring of 2022. There then followed a series of four trials, all of which were held at Birmingham Crown Court.

The first trial of seven defendants, all connected in different ways to the schemes, lasted 25 weeks.

• Denton received 15 years’ imprisonment for two frauds totalling £25 million.
• Rhys Wyn Williams pleaded guilty and received nine years’ imprisonment for money laundering and fraud offences.
• Lisa Alaw Williams pleaded guilty and received a 16-month suspended sentence for money laundering.
• Susan Gillis received 7½ years’ imprisonment for money laundering.
• Jamie Halfpenny received 7½ years’ imprisonment for fraud.
• Jason Curtis received 9 years’ imprisonment for money laundering and theft.
• Oakley was found not guilty on one charge, and the jury could not decide on a verdict for another. A new trial date was then set for January 2024.

A second trial started in December 2022. After eight months, three of the four defendants were found guilty. They were sentenced as follows:

• Luckhurst was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment for eight counts of theft and four counts of fraud.
• Shaw was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for three counts of fraud.
• Ian Bascombe was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for fraud.

The third trial of two further defendants, Tony Webster and Adrian Dunn, started in September 2023 and concluded just before Christmas. Both were found guilty of fraud offences. They were sentenced as follows:

• Adrian Dunn was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for three counts of fraud.
• Tony Webster was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for three counts of fraud.

The retrial of Oakley began in January 2024. He was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment.

R v Andrew Bird and Christopher Walton

Operation ‘Jamesia’

Andrew Bird and Christopher Walton defrauded their investors over six years. They took huge sums from them, which they used to pay back other investors to keep their scam running.

They denied fraud but were convicted and jailed for 8 years and 5 years respectively.

They ran a company called Anglo American Equities (AAE), which claimed to invest people’s money in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CMA).

The CMA is a genuine market where people can buy or sell precious metals, foreign currencies, treasury bonds, cryptocurrencies and financial contracts.

The defendants were in fact running a so-called Ponzi scheme, in which money from new investors was used to pay fake dividends to existing participants.

Derbyshire Police began investigating AAE after receiving a number of complaints from people, who said they had been unable to cash in their investment.

They denied thirteen charges of fraud by false representation.

Following a nine-week trial, Bird was convicted on all of the counts of fraud, and Walton on 10.

The case against them centred on the period between 2010 and 2016.

They met at Horsley Lodge Golf Club in Derbyshire in 2005 when Bird was running the AAE company.

Walton, a former bank manager, heard of Bird’s reported success in trading and investment. The two men then joined forces.

They convinced friends and family, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, of the returns they could expect and lied to them about the risk of the investments. They played on the fact that Bird had “… never lost money trading”.

Once investors paid money, they received documents designed to persuade them that their investment was doing well, and to encourage them to invest further.

The documentation was falsified. Indeed, the majority of the money the defendants took from people was not used to trade at all.

The scheme collapsed in August 2016 after it ran out of new cash.

Bird traded on his name and his family’s past connections with the Derby-based ‘Birds Bakery’ business.

R v Leadbeater and others

Operation ‘Manfield’

This was a joint prosecution brought by the CPS SEOCID and HMRC. Ten defendants were charged with conspiracy to launder criminal property. Three defendants were charged with substantive offences of money laundering.

Four members of the Leadbeater family participated in the conspiracy, which facilitated the movement of £79 million, from their family home in Rotherham. There were 7 other defendants who were also part of the Organised Crime Group (OCG) at the centre of the scheme.

The conspiracy ran from October 2016 to March 2019. It involved hundreds of thousands of pounds in ‘dirty’ cash being collected by members of the conspiracy in public house and supermarket car parks.

The conspirators also set up and ran 14 ‘sham’ companies, which they used to process the cash collected. The Leadbeaters operated nine of the companies with the others being controlled by those working on their behalf. Some of the companies held tens of millions of pounds in their accounts. They also transferred similar sums of money abroad via foreign exchange providers.

The trial judge described the offending as “crime of the highest order”. He sentenced Claire Leadbeater to 84 months’ imprisonment.  He sentenced Stephen Osborne to six years’ imprisonment for his role as a cash courier and director of one of the ‘sham’ companies. Those sentences followed their convictions by a jury after a trial lasting nine weeks.

The other conspirators, and those charged with substantive offences, pleaded guilty on different dates before and after the trial commenced. They received sentences ranging from suspended sentences of imprisonment to 68 months’ imprisonment.

R v Baston and others

Instructed by Falkland Islands Government to advise on prosecution of Spanish owners and operators of trawlers suspected of deliberate targeting of certain species of fish without required licence. Ds entered satisfactory guilty pleas following charging advice.

Operation Funder (Leeds Crown Court 2018)

Successful prosecution brought by National Trading Standards (NTS) eCrime Team of boiler room style fraud. Three Ds charged with conspiracy to defraud elderly and vulnerable members of the public to service and buy Dyson and Kirby vacuum cleaners. Principal D’s benefit about £1.5 million. Trial lasted eight weeks.

Operation Porcupine (Sheffield Crown Court 2017)

Leading Junior in prosecution of four Ds charged with fraud and fraudulent trading by taking steps to remove assets from their companies to avoid payments to their creditors. The case involved complex forensic accountancy and other expert financial evidence.

Operation Circus (Leeds Crown Court 2016-2018)

Leading Junior in successful prosecution of five Ds charged with a £6.5 million land fraud (in Panama) and investment (platform trading) fraud. The case lasted 6 months. Ds included Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) and a solicitor charged with offences of fraud and making misleading, false or deceptive statements contrary to section 397 (2) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The case required complicated and detailed analysis of the legislation. Successfully opposed all applications by the defence in relation to the operation of the legislation.

Operation Bamburgh (Newcastle) (Teesside Crown Court 2015)

Led by Jane Bewsey QC. Conspiracy to defraud by a number of corrupt professionals in North East acting in breach of their professional obligations arising out of a £110m mortgage fraud.

Operation Bamburgh (Durham) (Teesside Crown Court 2015)

Leading Junior in successful prosecution of four Ds charged with £1 million mortgage fraud in the North East. A number of different mortgage lenders were defrauded. The financial transactions in this case were numerous and complex. Trial lasted two months.

Operation Felucca (Leeds Crown Court 2014)

Leading Junior in successful prosecution of two brothers charged with fraudulent trading arising out of property investment fraud. Ds sold off-plan holiday properties in Bulgaria and Cape Verde to 72 victims diverting £1.6 million to pay off personal debts.

Operation Vetchball (Birmingham Crown Court 2014) and Vetchball 2 (Leeds Crown Court 2014)

Successful prosecution of four Ds convicted of multi-million pound conspiracies to evade excise duty payable on alcoholic drinks.

Operation Coil 2 (Teesside Crown Court 2014)

Leading Junior in successful prosecution of three Ds charged with defrauding a development agency (One North East) involving a sophisticated attempt to divert and misappropriate funds.

Operation Badger (Portsmouth Crown Court 2014)

Leading Junior in successful prosecution by the MMO of large-scale conspiracy to defraud. The case involved an elaborate scheme to defraud the British Government and the European Union of grant funding under European Fisheries Fund (EFF) using the clever manipulation of quotes for work done by different suppliers. It also involved expert evidence regarding the use of computers to further the fraud.

Operation Coil (Teesside Crown Court 2013)

Leading Junior in successful prosecution of a large-scale mortgage fraud by four Ds. Conspiracy to defraud different financial institutions involving false and hijacked identities. The case raised challenging issues relating to disclosure, and cut-throat defences.

Andrew is currently instructed in the following:

Ds accused of fraudulent trading and money laundering. First three Ds ran a series of businesses selling allegedly fraudulent property trusts to the elderly and vulnerable [worth over £5 million]. Claimed their products could avoid the payment of Care Home fees. Ds 4-6 qualified solicitors, who designed products for Ds 1-3. Required to deal with huge amount of digital information on Ds computer system for service/disclosure. Questions of legal professional privilege requiring appointment of independent Counsel. Difficult issues relating to expert evidence [whether any product could avoid payment of fees] and correct approach to use of such evidence by jury.

Andrew is also currently instructed pre-charge by SEOCID and HMRC to advise on prosecution of Ds involved in an allegedly significant money laundering operation (about £35 million).

Fraud (Defence)

R v Raine and others (Teesside Crown Court 2016)

Defence of award-winning sheep farmer charged with conspiracy to obtain stolen sheep by disguising them as his own, and then laundering the proceeds of their sale. Successfully raised legal argument to oppose form of indictment.

Op Teddington (R v Spence and others) (Leeds Crown Court 2011)

Led by Simon Bickler in the largest case ever prosecuted by the Leeds Complex Casework Unit arising from a covert police investigation involving the use of undercover police officers and technical surveillance. D accused of conspiracy to defraud creditors by complex web of offshore companies.

Operation District (Leeds Crown Court 2010)

Led by Guy Kearl QC. Three-month trial alleging an acquisition tax fraud with evasion of £11.3m VAT due on sales of car imported from the EU. D acquitted.

General Crime

Operation Peron [R v FR and others (Manchester Crown Court 2021)]

Leading Andrew Smith. Successful prosecution of seven defendants for murder of 16-year-old male in tit-for-tat violence between rival factions. Eighth defendant convicted of manslaughter. Complex issues of joint responsibility, bad character and ‘gang-related’ evidence.

R v DP and others (Newcastle Crown Court 2019)

D charged with conspiracy to murder, wounding with intent and rape of a male. P alleged D and co-accused conducted sustained physical, mental and sexual attack upon C, which involved stabbing him with knives and a screwdriver. They placed tape across his mouth, and his hands. They kept him at D’s house over number of hours during which they tortured him over an alleged drugs debt. Complex tactical issues arose when D’s initial defence that victim’s wounds were self- inflicted changed mid-trial after pathologist’s evidence. D subsequently admitted causing some of wounds but maintained co-accused must have caused the others.

R v SM (Kingston upon Hull Crown Court 2019)

D accused of the murder of her next-door neighbour. Struck her multiple times over head with a stone garden bird bath. D suffered from significant mental health issues, including a claim that she heard voices instructing her to kill the deceased, who she did not know. The case involved complex psychiatric evidence as to whether D’s responsibility for attack diminished by reason of abnormality of her mental functioning. Case involved correct interpretation and inter-relationship of/between sections 37, 41 and 45A [hospital/hybrid orders] of the Mental Health Act 1983.

Operation Shell (Teesside Crown Court 2018 – 2019)

Leading Counsel in successful prosecution of twelve Ds charged with conspiracy to supply 3.5 kilograms of heroin and cocaine. They used sophisticated methods to distribute the drugs to top tier dealers based in Liverpool, Teesside and Newcastle via couriers. Use of complex telephone/cell site, ANPR and covert surveillance evidence. Three separate trials, including money laundering offences against principal D and his wife, lasted 10 weeks.

R v NH (Bradford Crown Court 2018)

D accused of murder of his ex-partners daughter in Aldi supermarket in Skipton. D planned to kill deceased over two-week period in advance of attack. He bought a cross bow over the internet. He also armed himself with an axe. He made enquiries about buying a gun. He stabbed victim twelve times to her chest and abdomen. Successfully argued before CACD for reduction in minimum term.

[Section 269/Schedule 21to CJA 2003] of 30 years’ set by Crown Court.

R v DH (Blackfriars Crown Court 2018)

Defence of father (RAF serviceman) charged with non-recent rape of his daughter between the ages of 4 and 15. Cross border offending. Number of complaints made, and retracted, going back 30 years. Further complicated by prosecution going back on promise not to prosecute in 1995, and its loss of evidence at time. Abuse of process argument. D acquitted after two-week trial.

R v SL and NC (Doncaster Crown Court 2015)

Prosecution of two Ds charged with vaginal and anal rape. Prosecution case included CCTV footage and social media correspondence, hearsay evidence (significant witness in Mongolia) and complex issues relating to expert psychiatric and toxicology evidence on effects of alcohol on memory.