News & Events
News & Events
Matthew McDonagh successfully secured the acquittal of Vincent Walsh, a former senior equities trader at RBS. Mr Walsh had been charged with an alleged conspiracy to cheat the Inland Revenue amounting to millions of pounds of tax relief generated by investment in the British Film Industry. He was acquitted following an eight-week trial that concluded just before Christmas last year. Other defendants in the case who were convicted have now received substantial sentences following their involvement in the conspiracy. For further information, please see Bloomberg, Financial Times and CWD Law.
News 22 Jan, 2016
Following the biggest trial of its kind ever bought by the enforcement arm of the Department of Transport, a jury has just returned a verdict acquitting the directors and senior management of a subsidiary of a bank involved in providing finance to the transport industry on charges of conspiracy to defraud the transport regulator (the Traffic Commissioners of Great Britain). The trial involved allegations that the directors and managers had developed a business model aimed at subverting the regulatory system, and involved extensive evidence from several senior judicial figures within the system. Tim acted for two of the senior managers charged. At the conclusion of a trial which lasted 4 months the jury took 6 hours to return a unanimous…
News 6 Mar, 2015
Tim Green of Outer Temple Chambers was recently instructed by the HSE to prosecute Western Park Leicester Limited for a breach of s3 HSWA arising from the death of an elderly resident. Around 7.30 am on Monday 8 May 2012 Walter Powley fell in his room and was trapped against exposed hot water valves and pipes at 70 degrees Celsius. He sustained burns to his knees and legs which were a significant cause of his death 8 days later. Recorder Evans found the guidance available testifying to the danger posed from hot pipes to frail and elderly people was well known. Despite the company’s early guilty plea, the Judge fined the defendant £100,000 and ordered it to pay £35,000 costs.…
News 6 Feb, 2015
Solicitors and counsel acting for members of the military know that such claims carry their own distinct risks and thus cannot be viewed as “stereotypical” employers’ liability-type claims. In Broni, Woof and Barbour v Ministry of Defence [2015] EWHC 66 (QB), Supperstone J has confirmed that military claims do not fall within the auspices of the CPR Fixed Uplift regime as defined at Part 45 Section IV (which fixes uplift for employers liability claims at prescribed levels). In holding that members of the military were not engaged in a contract of service, it followed that they did not fall within the definition of an employee as defined by Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 (“the 1969 Act”). In these circumstances,…
News 28 Jan, 2015
On 2 December at Stafford Crown Court Lee Cottrill, a company director, was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment suspended for 12 months for health and safety offences. Mr Cottrill was for 20 years a company director of Albion and Tower Scaffolding and had admitted that whilst a director of Albion he has consented or connived in the construction of an unsafe system of scaffolding built around a warehouse outside Burton on Trent. Tim Green was instructed by the HSE to prosecute the case. Three other defendants also pleaded guilty. The Judge found that in respect of each defendant their breach of health and safety law was a significant cause of death. The total fines and costs imposed exceeded £150,000.
News 3 Dec, 2014
Fiona Horlick successfully represented a doctor who appealed against a GMC MPTS panel’s decision to hear his FTP case in his absence and where he had no legal representation. The issues in the case were very serious, justifying erasure. The High Court ruled that the ‘panel erred in a number of serious ways in their approach to the exercise of their discretion’.
News 2 Dec, 2014
Outer Temple has been recommended as a Top tier set in Business & Regulatory Crime, by the Legal 500.
News 16 Oct, 2014
Ben Compton QC has been acting for Beko PLC in relation to the fridge freezer fires, that led to the Santosh Muthiah inquest that was recently concluded before HM Coroner for North London. Beko PLC had been investigated both by the police for corporate manslaughter and then by Hertfordshire Trading Standards in respect of potential charges under the General Product Safety Regs of 2005 but without any charges being preferred. At the subsequent Inquest, following full legal argument, the Coroner ruled that there was insufficient evidence for a conclusion of “unlawful killing” and returned a conclusion of accidental death together with a short narrative. Further details can be found here.
News 29 Sep, 2014
Outer Temple’s Paul Rogers represents South Lakes Wild Animal Park in the inquest into the death of Sarah McClay, an animal carer who was killed when attacked by a tiger, in the keeper enclosure of the tiger house in May 2013. Paul was instructed by RPC solicitors.
News 16 Sep, 2014
A landmark judgment has been handed down in the IBM Project Waltz proceedings, in which Outer Temple silks Andrew Spink QC and Nicolas Stallworthy QC appeared for the Trustee of IBM’s two principal UK defined benefit pension schemes and the Representative Beneficiaries respectively. In 2009 IBM announced that, with effect from 2011, the two schemes would close to further benefit accrual, IBM UK’s longstanding early retirement policy would become much more restrictive and salary increases would only be offered in future to members of the schemes if they signed “Non Pensionability Agreements” (under which any such increases would not count as “pensionable salary” so as to feed into the calculation of their past service benefits). This controversial package of proposals,…
News 6 Apr, 2014
On 1 April 2014, a new and improved criminal cartel offence will be introduced in the UK by virtue of s47 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA13). By removing the requirement for an individual to have acted dishonestly in relation to commercial arrangements which involve deliberate price-fixing, market sharing, bid-rigging and limiting output, the new offence should make it easier for the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to launch prosecutions of individuals involved in prohibited hardcore cartels. However, by omitting to change the cartel offence so that it embraces corporate criminal liability as well, the question remains: Could the CMA or SFO charge a company with cartel crime? Just as I set…
News 26 Mar, 2014
Judgment was handed down by The Honourable Mr Justice Globe in the case of Ceri Leigh v The London Ambulance Service in which Christopher Gibson QC was representing the Claimant.
News 25 Feb, 2014
