James Fletcher

Year of Call: 2000

Education / Qualifications

BA (Hons) University of Warwick
Dip Law City University
Bar School College of Law

 

Specialist practice areas

Asset Forfeiture & Confiscation
Civil Practice
Personal Injury
Crime
Regulatory

Profile

James' practice primarily involves prosecuting and defending in financial, money laundering and fraud offences and dealing with civil law aspects of asset forfeiture and enforcement.  

James’ current positions include:

• "B List" of approved counsel for the Serious Fraud Office;
• "C List" of the Attorney General'  List of Prosecutors
• Approved counsel for the Fraud Prosecution Service as well as the CPS.   

James also acts for local authorities particularly in cases involving loan sharks and associated financial crime. He also has developed an expertise in defending traffic and motoring cases.

James has specialist knowledge of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and Asset Forfeiture law and regularly acts for the Proceeds of Crime Unit of the CPS in restraint, receivership, confiscation and enforcement cases in the Magistrates' Court, Crown Court and High Court. He is developing particular experience in matrimonial cases where they are affected by proceeds of crime legislation.

He also undertakes civil recovery cases for the Serious Organised Crime Agency in the High Court and cash forfeiture cases under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for a wide range of Police forces including the Metropolitan and Thames Valley Police, as well as the Commissioners of Revenue and Customs.   

He is also briefed specifically on behalf of defendants where they face complex confiscation issues.

James also represents claimants in personal injury cases of all levels of seriousness, conducting trials all over the country.

James regularly gives seminars and lectures on financial crime. His recent lectures include:

• Providing a lecture on money laundering to the CPS
• Delivering a seminar on how the courts have dealt with confiscation since the House of Lords rulings in May, Green & Jennings.
• Speaking about the prosecution and defence of illegal money lending cases

James’ commentary on Jennings v CPS [2006] 1 WLR 182, is published in the Proceeds of Crime Review (No 1 of 2008). His latest article on “The effect of Delay in Relation to Restraint Orders” will be published in the forthcoming Proceeds of Crime Review.

Professional Memberships

South Eastern Circuit

Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association

Languages

Good French, Basic Dutch, German and Italian

Cases of note

SOCA v Shaikh, Shaikh and Shaikh (High Court)
A high value application for Civil Recovery under the Proceeds of Crime that that ended in a settlement favourable to SOCA.

R -v- F & B [2008] EWCA Crim 1868 (Court of Appeal)
Led by Andrew Bird in appeal against a decision that there was no case to answer in a money laundering case involving over £1,000,000 cash packed in checked-in luggage bound for Iran. The Court of Appeal ruled that a money laundering prosecution could be brought where circumstantial evidence led to the irresistible inference that the cash was the proceeds of crime.

HMRC -v- Gilligan A20070176 (Crown Court)
An application for forfeiture of cash under the Drug Trafficking Act 1996 where it was considered too dangerous for the respondent, an imprisoned gangster in Ireland, to attend the hearing in person, resulting in the proceedings taking place by video link.

R -v- Simon Harrison T20077102 (Crown Court)
Acted for the defendant during a 5 day confiscation hearing, won major concessions from the Crown and successfully managed to reduce the figures for both “benefit” and “available amount.”

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Ya Li Liu (2009) (Crown Court)
A successful in rem application for the forfeiture of £340,000 cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 representing the closing balances of companies ostensibly involved in remitting money to China. The case involved consideration of financial material, breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, corporate structures and tracing.

R v. Rawand and others (Operation Bluejay) (Crown Court)
Led by Harry Hewitt (Attorney General’s A List) in two large scale multi-million pound money laundering cases. The defendants were part of a family-run professional money laundering gang who used London based Money Service Bureaus as fronts for the laundering of millions of pounds of cash derived from Organised Crime Groups based in central and North West London and in Bournemouth.

CPS v Afzall Hussain [2009] EWHC 3568 (Admin) (High Court)
Acted for the CPS in this application for an enforcement receiver in the High Court. The case involved a defendant who had previously succeeded in placing his properties in third party names to frustrate the payment of a confiscation order made against him.

Operation Brushfield (Crown Court)
Led by Standing Counsel to RCPO in a series of drug and money laundering trials involving the importation of large quantities of heroin via lorry and their onward distribution through networks in London and Birmingham.

Operation Slick (Crown Court)
James is counsel responsible for all aspects of the Restraint Order proceedings in an on-going alleged conspiracy to defraud case arising out of suspected “boiler rooms”. The case is being investigated by the Financial Services Authority and prosecuted by the Fraud Prosecution Service.

R v Cope, Oxlade and Challiner (Crown Court)
Junior counsel in a £25 million leasing fraud prosecuted by the Fraud Prosecution Service.