Our client has been acquitted following an evidentially complex trial concerning allegations arising from a wider HMRC investigation into fraudulent Research & Development (“R&D”) tax relief claims. The prosecution was one of the largest to deal with R&D tax relief fraud. We were instructed by client from the commencement of the proceedings.
The prosecution case concerned an investigation encompassing 85 R&D claims made through 40 companies, said to total approximately £6.82 million, of which some £3.7 million was paid out by HMRC. Ten of those claims featured in the allegations against our client.
The case originally involved eight defendants; by the time of trial, our client was the only one remaining and was acquitted after 3 week trial.
The prosecution relied upon a substantial body of business and financial material, including company accounts, corporation tax returns, R&D documentation, Companies House records, bank records, VAT returns and electronic correspondence.
The defence required rigorous and detailed preparation with consideration of over 20,000 pages of evidence in preparing the defence. A significant volume of contemporaneous documentation and correspondence was identified, analysed and collated on behalf of our client, enabling individual transactions, communications and corporate records to be examined by the jury in their proper context.
Given the nature of the allegations, considering individual documents in isolation would not have been sufficient. The defence involved presenting the full documentary history, testing the prosecution’s interpretation of the records, and placing the transactions in their broader factual and commercial context.
We are delighted with the result for our client, who can now put these proceedings behind them after a demanding and stressful process.
The defence team was led by Mark Bowen, Senior Partner, assisted by Alice Dyer, Associate, and Caitlin Albert, Trainee Solicitor. Counsel instructed was Jeffrey Israel of 25 Bedford Row, whose exceptional advocacy and command of a detailed, document-heavy case was extraordinary.