Janes Solicitors

Supervising Solicitor in Fraud, Complex and Serious Crime

Fiona is a senior criminal litigation lawyer specialising in and with extensive experience of complex business, white collar and general crime. She has led large teams of solicitors in numerous high profile and media featured cases brought by the SFO, HMRC, CPS, FCA, Trading Standards and more recently the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit. Fiona qualified as a solicitor in 2000.

Significant cases include:

R- V- R and others (Op Amazon) Southwark Crown Court Feb 2017 – present
Successful Defence of an accountant after a ten month trial. The case took  8 years to come to trial and has been described as the most complex direct tax prosecution case ever brought by HMRC.  The case has afforded unprecedented insight into the workings and deficiencies of HMRC’s disclosure process as regards e-disclosure.

R- V- JWW and others July 2017
Successful defence of the director of a major independent brewery who faced three counts of cheating the public revenue. The charges related to the alleged non-payment of tax by the company. The company was one of the first London microbreweries and was recently acquired by Carlsberg. The jury were directed to give not guilty verdicts following successful half time submissions of “no case to answer”.

R- v- R and others Southwark Crown Court Sept 2015 - Jan 2016
Successful defence of a broker who worked at Tullett Prebon accused of involvement in LIBOR manipulation. The client was acquitted in less than one day following a four month trial.

R- V T Central Criminal Court - Charged 1st June 2017 . Trial September 2018
Charges of “Torture” dating back to the Liberian civil war, brought by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit under “Universal Jurisdiction”.

Other Notable Experience in Allegations of:

-Pension theft (Cheney Locksmiths in Birmingham)
-Horse race fixing (involving Kieran Fallon)
-Counterfeit software (Microsoft grey goods market)
-Boiler room fraud
-MTIC fraud
-Money Laundering (including a long running trial of money laundering for a Colombian drugs cartel with numerous associated trials involving a police informant).
-Large scale mortgage fraud
-Tax evasion (representing two Vantis Tax directors and their wives)
-Drugs offences (including importation and possession with intent to supply)
-Arson (resulting in hospital order)
-Fraudulent Trading (including the McAlpine owned “Welsh Slate” false invoicing case).
Relevant Work History

Bark and Co - May 2001 - present (VHCC supervisor since 2006) Janes Solicitors 1998 – 2001 Training Contract and post qualification (also qualifying as duty solicitor)

Fluent Greek and French

Fraud Lawyers Association Female Fraud Forum

BA - Law and French - Westminster MA - Inter-disciplinary Masters - War Studies dept. - King’s College London Legal Practice Course - College of Law (York