Michael is our most senior consultant, a solicitor advocate with more than thirty years in practice and one of the country’s leading specialists in serious and complex fraud, financial crime and money laundering investigations.
Michael is a solicitor advocate with over thirty years of professional experience, and is recognised nationally as one of the country’s leading specialists in serious and complex fraud, financial crime and money laundering investigations.
His particular expertise covers Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud, long firm fraud and diversion fraud, money laundering allegations, confiscation proceedings and complex financial investigations — the cases that turn on documents, company structures and the movement of money rather than on eyewitnesses.
Alongside his criminal practice he has an unusual breadth across company law, insolvency, property disputes, contentious probate, commercial litigation and regulatory matters, which is often what a financial crime case actually requires.
He has built a wide following over the years and remains one of the most sought-after solicitors in the field of heavyweight crime.
If I do not know how to do it, I know someone who does. My clients don’t want to know what they cannot do. They want to know how they can do it.
Notable cases
Serious and complex fraud
- London City Bond — Michael acted for several of the leading successful defendants in what has been described as one of the most significant fraud prosecutions in modern legal history. The case led to the publication of the Butterfield Report, which exposed shortcomings in HM Customs and Excise’s investigative and prosecutorial practices.
- Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud — a long-standing specialism, and among the most document-heavy prosecutions brought in this jurisdiction.
- Long firm fraud and diversion fraud.
Financial crime and confiscation
- Money laundering allegations, including those arising from wider financial investigations.
- Confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act, from the first application through to enforcement.
- Complex financial investigations by HMRC and other prosecuting agencies.
Client identities are protected. Every case turns on its own facts; past results are not a guarantee of any particular outcome.