Michael Brunskill and Kayley Giddings acted for MI, a property investor, who was prosecuted for laundering the proceeds of drug dealing and tax evasion. The case went to trial at Manchester Crown Court in October 2015.
MI had part ownership of a large property investment portfolio. The Crown alleged that he had been used by family members and associates to launder the proceeds of their drug dealing into the property portfolio. It was also alleged that MI did not have the income to support the property investments that he had made. The Crown claimed that, even if he managed to show that his investments were not made from drug money, they must have been made from income that had not been declared to HMRC.
Although the Crown were confident of a strong case at the beginning of trial, they were forced to abandon proceedings after 3 weeks with the result that not guilty verdicts were recorded against all 11 defendants. The Crown took its decision to discontinue the case after detailed financial evidence was submitted by Brunskill Solicitors on behalf of MI. This evidence was supported by the other defendants and the Crown was forced to admit that it had misunderstood the financial structure behind the property transactions concerned.
