Fiona Horlick QC secures acquittal in NHS bribery trial

Fiona Horlick QC has secured an acquittal of her pharmacist client in a bribery trial which concluded last week at Southampton Crown Court.

Fiona’s client, a pharmacist, was accused together with two other pharmacists and a doctor, of bribery on behalf of pharmaceutical companies in order to secure the prescribing of medications on the NHS. All four defendants maintained their innocence. 

The trial followed a 6 year investigation with the need to scrutinise hundreds of thousands of documents and communications dating back around 20 years. However, serious disclosure failures on behalf of the investigation team were uncovered in large part by Fiona’s team and the prosecution offered no further evidence after 6 weeks of trial. The trial was expected to last 12 weeks but, after setting out the prosecution case, it was abandoned.

Fiona was instructed by Hempsons.

Find out more

This trial was widely reported in The Telegraph as well as Pharmacy Magazine.

Fiona Horlick QC‘s practice encompasses Health and Safety, a wide variety of Regulatory work, Disciplinary proceedings, Business Crime and Medical Crime. One of Fiona’s specialities is defending professionals in criminal trials. Fiona is the co-editor and major contributing author of the international textbook ‘Lissack and Horlick on Bribery and Corruption’ published by LexisNexis.

To find out more, contact Paul Barton +44 (0)20 7427 4907 or Ben Fitzgerald on +44 (0)20 7758 4759 for a confidential discussion.

News 9 Mar, 2022