JMW Solicitors LLP

Business crime and Professional regulation.

Professional Regulation

Evan represents professional and commercial clients before regulatory panels and in the related courts. He is highly regarded for his detailed preparation and understanding of issues faced by clients who are alleged to have breached professional standards and regulations, including fitness to practice issues. Clients include solicitors, medical practitioners, politicians, accountants, architects, senior directors and sports professionals.

Business Crime Defence

Evan has been instructed to defend in a great many serious fraud, restraint, asset recovery and confiscation cases in the UK and abroad. He is highly regarded by forensic accountants, who have described him as ‘having a rare ability to grasp the central issue when faced with complicated scenarios’. He has represented clients in many of the largest cases prosecuted in the North West and some of the largest cases nationally. These include matters brought by The Crown Prosecution Service, The Serious and Organised Crime Agency, The Department for Business and Enterprise, UK Border Force and HM Revenue and Customs. Evan presents seminars to other solicitors and barristers on fraud-related topics. Recent cases include: high profile politician in a corruption investigation; misconduct in a winding up petition; eight-defendant £35m; finance fraud; doctor involved in a corporate manslaughter investigation following a death in custody; large Trading Standards prosecution involving a council tax re-banding enterprise; 12-defendant fraud on a local authority involving loss to the public purse of £1m; 14-defendant excise duty fraud whereby £6m of excise duty and VAT was avoided; extradition of defendants from the EU to face contempt of court and confiscation enforcement proceedings; multimillion-pound importation of pharmaceuticals from China in contravention of licence; six-defendant property management fraud resulting in confiscation proceedings where the prosecution applied for recovery of over £2m; large-scale ‘long firm fraud’ conspiracy involving multiple frauds on various companies; and judicial review proceedings against SOCA in a property development fraud. Evan has appeared on radio and TV commenting upon fraud related topics. Evan is increasingly involved in civil asset fraud recovery and Part 5 POCA cases arising out of financial investigations.

Police Constable GMP 1989; trained Berry and Berry; qualified 1997; JMW 1997; partner Draycott Browne 2003-11; partner JMW 2011 to date; appointed as a specialist fraud panel supervisor 2004; publications include ‘Deferred Prosecution Agreements – “Pay up or else”’ (March 2014) and various regular articles on regulatory issues in particular.

North West Fraud Forum; Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.

Royal School, Armagh; Manchester Metropolitan University (1989 BA Hons Politics and Law; 1993 professional qualifications).

Competitive open-water swimming and ultra-marathons.