R v H
Opus Law, are delighted to announce the conclusion of a complex money laundering trial with a not guilty verdict for our client ‘H’.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency accused H of being a ‘high ranking member of an organized criminal group’ and involved in an international money laundering operation. It was alleged that the 19 defendants on trial were responsible for laundering in excess of £170,000,000 in cash out of the jurisdiction to Dubai and China. Businesses in Birmingham, Manchester, Doncaster and Leicester were raided and individuals connected to those businesses arrested. H was arrested in Leeds carrying a bag containing over £340,000 in cash. The cash was forensically examined and found to be contaminated with traces of cannabis and amphetamine. A search of H’s home address revealed further cash sums, anti-surveillance equipment and a quantity of cannabis. Examination of a telephone SIM card uplifted from H’s home address revealed contact with a telephone belonging to a member of the alleged criminal group and surveillance evidence was disclosed showing a meeting between H and that defendant “S”. S subsequently entered a guilty plea.
Opus Law Solicitor, Ian Anderson, identified that extensive and proactive defence work was required in order to surmount the prosecution case, this included the defence team traveling to Dubai to speak to business owners and photograph locations, liaising with businesses in Hong Kong, obtaining expert forensic drug contamination evidence, instructing computer forensics experts, instructing forensic accountants to prepare an expert accounting report, tracing and interviewing in excess of fifteen potential defence witnesses and obtaining witness summonses for prosecution witnesses.
During the trial the expert skills and acumen of barrister Nigel Edwards (St Pauls Chambers, Leeds and Carmelite Chambers, London) a fraud specialist with over fifteen years top level advocacy experience, secured the right result for H and for Opus Law. Tim Keeling of Forths Forensic Accounting, Leeds, was instructed to examine and dissect the defendants business records and to prepare an expert accountancy report.
It is of note that of the 18 defendants on trial so for Money Laundering, only H and one other secured not guilty verdicts.
Case represented by the Opus Law Team.