Case News from Bark & Co

Maria Mester, represented by Raj Dayal of Bark and Co, has been cleared by a jury in the UK’s largest ever burglary trial.  After a seven week trial at Isleworth Crown Court, Ms Mester, described by the prosecution as the lead defendant , was unanimously found not guilty of all five counts which included sums… Read more »

Bark & Co are defending a client accused of involvement in a £26m theft Isleworth Crown Court including alleged thefts from homes of Frank Lampard and Tamara Ecclestone. The Daily Mail Reports

Chambers & Partners have now published the 2020 edition of their High Net Worth (HNW) Guide and Bark&co have once again been ranked in Financial Crime: High Net Worth Individuals – UK. In relation to the firm, Chambers High Net Worth states: Bark&co handles domestic and international financial crime matters for high net worth individuals,… Read more »

Bark&co are happy to report that in the case of R v Frederick Parr and Others (prosecuted by the Information Commissioners Office (“ICO”)) that the prosecution has today decided to offer no evidence against our client and all other co-Defendants. The case was heard at Warwick Crown Court. Mr. Frederick Parr first came to Bark&co… Read more »

R v Waqas ASLAM & 14 Ors [Operation Banjax] 2019 – Southwark Crown Court The case was an MTIC Fraud which was part and parcel of Import Duty Diversion on Beers, Wines and Spirits. According to HMRC the OCG were accountable for significant losses to the UK Exchequer through associated large scale VAT and Excise… Read more »

Bark&co were successful in an application to set aside an Account Freezing Order (“AFO”) against our client. The case originally started on 1st May 2019 when Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”) applied to freeze the bank account of our client, W. Ltd, under s.303Z1 Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (“POCA 2002”), on the basis… Read more »

Our client was acquitted of murder and manslaughter at the Old Bailey on 11th February 2019. Mr Umezie was accused of stabbing Sidique Kamara to death, after an altercation in which the deceased and another assailant robbed Mr Umezie for his Cartier watch. Mr Umezie successfully raised self-defence, in that he disarmed the deceased of… Read more »

Former Nigerian International & Premier League footballer Sam Sodje was found not guilty of all allegations of money laundering in the Central Criminal Court on 21st January 2019. He was represented by Peter Finbow and Dean Armstrong QC of 36 Bedford Row. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46946503 https://news.sky.com/story/sodje-scandal-sporting-brothers-jailed-for-africa-charity-fraud-11613619

The case of Patryk Lewicki v Polish Judicial Authority was heard at the Administrative Court on 26th September 2018 before Mrs Justice Whipple. Laura Herbert from Charter Chambers was instructed by Magdalena Motyl. We successfully argued that due to the short sentence remaining to be served in Poland it would be a disproportionate breach of… Read more »

On Monday 8th July 2018, following a successful appeal against the Extradition Order issued by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, in the case of Gumieniczek v Poland, the High Court quashed the Order for Extradition and the client was immediately released. Our challenge was based on the aggregation of the sentence with non-extradition offences, a point… Read more »