Recognised as a leading junior for criminal fraud in both The Legal 500 (2009) and Chambers and Partners (2010).
David has acted for the SFO in such cases as R v Harper and others (Reading Crown Court), which involved large scale corruption of middle management over years.
As junior prosecuting counsel he advised the SFO on the division of the convicted defendants’ assets between victims of fraud and confiscation during the not always harmonious parallel civil recovery proceedings brought by victims of fraud, (reported as 4 Eng Ltd v Harper [2009] Ch 91, a leading case on civil recovery heads of damage)
R v Welcher [2007] EWCA Crim 480, a case that went to appeal principally on use of employers’ disciplinary interviews in criminal proceedings, which were properly deployed by the prosecution before the jury on this occasion, (but also concerning the effect of ‘a long and boring summing up’ by the Judge – a perennial fraud problem; appealable? Not this time.)
R v Gray [2007] EWCA Crim 2658, a case that went to appeal on the admissibility of a co-defendant’s records against the appellant, and on the adequacy of the Judge’s findings in confiscation proceedings; resulting in the conviction being upheld and 96% of the confiscation order upheld.
More recently [2009] David successfully prosecuted for the SFO the directors of a McAlpine subsidiary, Welsh Slate, for fraudulent trading (cooking the books for their own aggrandisement and bonuses).
Also in 2009 prosecuted for West Midlands CPS Complex Casework R v Bo Li and others, and R v Yan Li, cases about the money laundering operation that lay below the surface of the Morecombe Bay cockle pickers disaster, when 24 Chinese cockle pickers died in the oncoming tide. The first trial case was made more interesting by the Judge refusing to allow the prosecution to lead the links of the main defendant to those convicted of the manslaughter of the pickers (prejudice outweighing the probative value, he held – well done defence counsel!) so requiring the prosecution to convince the jury of money laundering on unexplained cash without any overt evidence of crime. Following convictions the ongoing confiscation proceedings, as usual, involve asset tracing in many jurisdictions around the world.
Over the last 10 years David has been involved in such large fraud cases as R v Palmer at the Central Criminal Court and appeals (£40 million timeshare fraud, and confiscation), R v Robinson and others at Bristol Crown Court (multi trial case of many members of a solicitors’ firm abusing the Green Form legal aid scheme, apparently the largest Legal Aid fraud yet prosecuted), R v Nwadwikwa, Middlesex Crown Court, (a conspiracy involving a serving police officer to defraud Hackney Education Trust), as well as many smaller frauds variously charged both prosecuting and defending.
David advises solicitors’ firms on the Money laundering implications of holding client funds and money on account for clients suspected of criminal offences.
He is instructed in Health and Safety prosecutions.
David is currently involved as leading junior counsel in the defence of a builder charged in a conspiracy to defraud in a case set to last 4 months.
Contact David Matthew
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7242 3555
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7242 2511
Email: clerks@7br.co.uk