R v Hayble (instructed by Saunders Law Ltd)

John Femi-Ola led Charles Durrant in a wine fraud re-trial. The trial lasted just two weeks before the Crown were forced to offer no evidence against the Defendant through a combination of the Defendant's ill-health and evidential fragilities that emerged for the first time during the re-trial.

The case centred upon a series of companies set up and run in order to perpetrate wine investment fraud. Skilled brokers would sell futures in wine not yet bottled (known as 'en primeur') with the prospect of the wine, once bottled, appreciating in value. It was said that the advantage of the fraud was that investors would not see any physical representation of their investment until the wine was bottled, which could take years. Accordingly, there was very little way of checking the company had sold them something legitimate.

The Directors involved earned over 2.5 million from this sophisticated enterprise. The case was complicated by bad character applications from the prosecution and the co-defendant. The mobile phone data was considerable, so too the unused (over 5,000 pages) from which the majority of cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses derived.

The money trail was equally complex and led not  just to numerous bank accounts in the UK but to Cypriot Banks, Trust Funds in Switzerland and property in the UK and Cyprus.

The co-defendant who was convicted after trial, is now serving six years.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-1706155/Fraudsters-25m-haul-on-fine-wine-that-didnt-exist.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/843939-fraudsters-made-2-5m-from-fine-wine-scam

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/9145032.Fine_wine_scam_funded_lavish_lifestyles/