Bark&Co

Dean George, instructed by Paul Cameron and Marcia Lawrence of Bark&Co, obtained an acquittal of murder for his client accused of stabbing his mother’s partner 18 times. Read more: https://bit.ly/4dVPy6w

After a significant period of time, and following our strategic assistance with the help of counsel Neil Hawes KC of Crucible, we are delighted that the SFO has made the decision to not charge our client or further name him as an alleged conspirator in the Glencore investigation. Giles Bark-Jones and Peter Finbow led the team at Bark&co https://lnkd.in/eUxMagAQ

Bark&Co secure the acquittal of a client charged with the Conspiracy to supply £83million of Cocaine. The prosecution alleged our client to be part of a group operating at the highest level of Serious Organised Crime in the United Kingdom and with international connections. Both the value of the drugs and the direct link to the importation meant that any conviction would lead to sentences of c25 years. Vanessa Wiggins of Bark&Co and Henry Hughes of 187 Chambers represented the client in a hard fought and attritional trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court. The client was proven to be involved in the physical receipt of a smuggled delivery of ¾ of a tonne of high quality cocaine as it arrived in the United Kingdom. The drugs had a street value of £83million and had been shipped directly from Central America. The case was fought on the basis that the law required the prosecution to exclude the possibility that the defendant was ignorant of the contents of the delivery. After a 6 week trial the jury unanimously acquitted our client. 

We are pleased to have been ranked again this year in Chambers and Partners HNW guide 2024 for providing legal advice to high-net-worth individuals in the area of Financial Crime. Giles Bark-Jones and David Byrne have also been ranked. Chambers and Partners #HNW https://lnkd.in/eHaA2Bvd

Thank you to all the people that attended the Bark&Co race event at Epsom Downs Racecourse last night. 🐎 🐎🐎🐎

Successful Deportation Case Magdalena Motyl was instructed in an immigration case where the Appellant faced deportation to Poland. The Appellant was convicted of 1 count of violent disorder, 6 counts of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, 1 count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, 1 count of possessing a knife or sharply pointed article in a public place and 1 count of possessing an offensive weapon in a public place. He was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment. Subsequently, the Appellant was issued a liability to deportation letter and then a deportation order on grounds of public policy or security in accordance with regulation 23(6)(b) and regulation 27 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 (“the EEA Regulations 2016”). On 3 July 2024, Judge F E Robinson ruled that it would not be proportionate to deport the Appellant to Poland and that his rights are preserved under the EEA Regulations 2016. Counsel instructed on behalf of the Appellant was Amanda Jones from Great James Street Chambers

James Scobie KC of Garden Court Chambers and @Ruth Zentler-Munro of 15 NBS Chambers were instructed and greatly assisted by Vanessa Wiggins of Bark&Co Solicitors, to represent JM a young man of previous good character, who was wrongly accused of having planned to execute a rival drug dealer, UM, in cold blood.    The Crown alleged that JM had obtained a burner phone the day before the killing took place, which was used in order to lure UM to the park anonymously. The evidence showed that JM had possession of large knives both before and after the fatal incident. CCTV evidence tracked JM going to and from home address to the scene, dressed head to toe in black and wearing a balaclava and hood. Witnesses -including an 11 year old child- described JM as looking angry and focussed, and that, by contrast, UM looking relaxed. Moments later a cry of pain was heard and UM ran away from the scene, having been fatally injured.    Ms Wiggins was able to use her extensive experience and tactical nous to foresee and forestall various evidential developments, so that the defence case was not derailed by the late service of substantial tranches of evidence. Realistic and focussed advice was provided throughout, which meant that the defence case was coherent and persuasive.   The defence team were dogged in ensuring that the Crown provided all the relevant unused material. This unused material was forensically examined and allowed the defence to successfully argued that UM’s previous connection with knives and gangs should be admitted, notwithstanding that he had no such previous convictions. This evidence was pivotal in being able to establish that it was UM who had brought the knife to the scene, rather than vice versa, which was determinative of the issue of self-defence.

What a great and interesting case this was. Giles Bark-Jones led the team at Bark&Co acting for Mr Henningson. Link below to the Judgement handed down today. https://lnkd.in/e7dbCtx3 #insolvency #insolvencylaw #BHS

We are instructed in Operation Baler. The HMRC investigation which allegedly uncovered this scheme also identified a vast network of fictitious companies. This network allegedly provided a service by which false invoices were raised and the money used to pay them was recycled both through bank accounts managed by the network and by third parties who lent their services to the scheme, enabling the money to be returned to the film production company, minus a fee. The effect was to launder the proceeds of the crime on a massive scale. This case concerns an alleged criminal scheme by which a number of directors of a film production company cheated the revenue out of over £13m in value added tax. We have instructed Martin McCarthy KC of Farringdon Barristers Chambers

We have been instructed by the main defendant and two others defendants in a 28 hander HMRC case (Operation Eider). The mechanism of the alleged cheat was that companies controlled by the defendants received, but failed to pass on, tax that was owed to HMRC. The cheat centred on two sources of revenue: Value Added Tax (VAT) and Construction Industry Scheme deductions (CIS). It was carried out between January 2017 and March 2022 and the estimated loss to the revenue in this period was £21million. The case has been spilt into 5 trials. We have instructed Narita Bahra KC of 33 Chancery Lane Nick James of 2 Bedford Row Financial Crime Team @Roderick James of Crucible and Rupert Kent of 5 King's Bench Walk