Victoria Atkins specialises in fraud and criminal regulatory work, with a practice in serious, complex crime of a quality and consistency unusually impressive for someone of her call.
Areas of Expertise
Victoria has been appointed to List B of the Attorney-General's Panel and the Serious Fraud Office's Panel.
She receives instructions from the:
- Financial Services Authority,
- Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office, for cases investigated by HM Revenue and Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency,
- Health and Safety Executive,
- Department for Work and Pensions,
- Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
She is very experienced in dealing with abuse of process arguments, confiscation issues and expert witnesses, particularly forensic accountants and Health and Safety experts, as well as working with business accounting records and foreign evidence, and obtaining European Arrest Warrants. The complex and often technical nature of her cases means that she is practised in tackling esoteric points of law.
The majority of her cases involve thousands of pages of evidence and unused material. She works efficiently in reviewing large volumes of data and is proficient at effective case management.
Her recent cases demonstrate the expertise she holds in the following areas:
Serious and Complex Fraud and Money Laundering
Instructed in a wide range of frauds and financial cases, ranging from Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) and VAT repayment frauds to welfare benefit frauds and money laundering offences, including:
- R v Mote (2004-2008) – Instructed as junior counsel in the successful prosecution of a Member of the European Parliament for benefit fraud.
- In litigation unprecedented in United Kingdom law, she advised on the Attorney General’s application to the President of the European Parliament to declare that parliamentary immunity and privileges did not prohibit the prosecution of British MEPs: the Parliament accepted the interpretation advanced and made the declaration.
- In addition to this issue of the declaration, during the four years’ of litigation, a number of other esoteric points of law were raised, including an application to lift a stay on the indictment following the declaration, the impact of the declaration on subsequent amendments to the indictment, the “dual purpose” of interviews under caution by the DWP and the merits of imposing reporting restrictions under section 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. The Crown succeeded on all these issues.
- Following the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the Defendant’s appeal against conviction, the Defendant applied for leave to appeal to the House of Lords. She drafted the skeleton argument which resulted in the refusal of a certificate and leave to appeal to the House of Lords.
- Operation Tartrate (2008-) – Victoria is instructed as Junior Counsel in this £10 million excise fraud.
- Operation District (2007-2008) – Instructed as junior counsel to advise on charge in respect of 9 suspects in an investigation into a suspected MTIC fraud, committed between 2002 and 2005, involving the evasion of £11.3million in Value Added Tax on motor vehicle sales in the United Kingdom.
- R v Mehta and others (Operation Cruse – 2006-2008) - a 6-handed prosecution of the highest-value MTIC fraud in Scotland, and subsequent money-laundering (over £10 million) which resulted in 4 convictions.
- Instructed as disclosure counsel, responsible for reviewing material from HMRC’s library of MTIC fraud unused material (MIHP), as well as case-specific unused material. Her responsibilities included dealing with disclosure issues in court, including Public Interest Immunity applications, and extended to calling evidence in chief during the 6-month trial. There were particularly complex disclosure issues regarding cut-throat defences, actual jury tampering and threats to kill during trial.
- R v Creaven (Operation Chipstick – 2004-2005) – Instructed as junior counsel to prosecute a fraud involving the largest ever VAT-loss sustained by HM Customs & Excise (more than £300 million).
- The case was exceptionally complex as Creaven was a foreign national who had supplied numerous different groups of UK-based VAT-fraudsters (who, in turn, were the subject of separate prosecutions). There were 130,000 pages of evidence and more than a million items of unused material.
Health and Safety
Victoria has considerable experience in the field of Health and Safety prosecutions, ranging from breaches of Regulations to fatal incidents prosecuted under sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety At Work etc. Act 1974. Her cases have involved a range of different factual settings, often of a highly technical nature, including safety services on London Underground, an archaeological excavation, food production and many aspects of the construction industry, such as falls from height, collapsed cranes and trenches. Some of her cases are set out below:
- R v EDF Energy Contracting Ltd (2009) –Victoria acted alone in this prosecution involving a fall from height which resulted in a fatality. The company was fined £160,000 with costs.
- R v OCS Group UK Ltd (2009) –An employee was seriously injured when a hopper collapsed during maintenance work at a commercial laundry site. This company was fined £80,000 with costs.
- R v John Wootten trading as AEP Aggregates (2006-2009) – This case concerned a fatality in the haulage industry. The identity of the employer was in issue, necessitating research and preparation of arguments on employment law.
- R v Air Products PLC (2004) – a pressurised cylinder containing Hydrogen Fluoride gas exploded about 10 metres from rail lines serving the East Coast Intercity routes, releasing its toxic contents into the air and causing substantial damage to neighbouring buildings. The defendant company which supplied the cylinder admitted failing to provide sufficient guidance to its purchaser regarding storage and failing to test the safety of the cylinder before supply.
- R v William Hare Ltd (2003) – two employees fell from the steel structure of an extension to the Imperial War Museum, resulting in one fatality. Victoria was instructed by the Health and Safety Executive. The company pleaded guilty and was fined £75,000 with costs.
- R v AMEC Services Ltd and AMS No-Dig Ltd (2002) – a 36-inch diameter water main was fractured during the replacement of a gas main, causing the local area to flood to waist-height within minutes. An elderly lady was trapped in her car in the flood and suffered acute cardiac failure. One of the defendant companies denied causation. Victoria’s response on the law of causation in criminal courts led the Judge to rule that the company’s culpability was proven and to treat the death as an aggravating feature when considering sentence. The first defendant was fined £25,000 and the second defendant was fined £20,000.
Victoria has also been instructed to advise before and after the commencement of prosecutions in relation to fatalities arising in the context of care homes, chemical factories and food factories.
Business Regulation and Corporate Governance
Victoria has acted alone in many cases for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, including:
- R v Neil Cattermole (2005) – nearly £100,000 in cash was withdrawn, without explanation, from the defendant’s sole trader bank account in the 12 months preceding the presentation of a bankruptcy petition, contrary to section 354 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The defendant pleaded guilty to the indictment.
- R v Melvin Share (2007) – the defendant persuaded members of the public to enter into supposed business transactions with him, thereby obtaining around £48,000 in credit, whilst failing to inform them of his status as a bankrupt, contrary to section 360 of the Insolvency Act 1986. He did not repay this money and attempted to quell their suspicions with forged cheques and fake loan agreements, contrary to section 1 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 and section 2 of the Theft Act 1978. The defendant pleaded guilty to the indictment.
- R v Paul Nolan and Sean Nolan (2006) – their company entered into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation, with an estimated deficiency to creditors of over £370,000. The defendants failed to deliver up the company’s accounting records so that the Liquidator was unable to identify the reasons for the company’s liquidation. Offences contrary to ss221 and 222 of the Companies Act 1985 and ss208 and 235 of the Insolvency Act 1986 were charged.
Victoria has also prosecuted cases under sections 206 and 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986 and section 13 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 and advised on the continuation of proceedings in relation to section 362 of the Insolvency Act 1986.
Other cases of note
She welcomes instructions of a non-regulatory nature as well. For example:
- R v James Scott, Wayne Shirley and David Sueafatt (2005-2007) – Instructed as junior counsel in a conspiracy to import 15 kilograms of cocaine. The quality of the cocaine was such that it was considered to be “national-level trafficking”. Two defendants pleaded guilty and the third was convicted at trial. Sentences were imposed of up to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Advisory Work
She has always undertaken a wide range of advisory work which regularly includes:
- reviewing the safety of convictions for defendants;
- pre-charge advice on both procedural issues and the sufficiency of evidence for HMRC, HSE and BERR;
- making and responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the HSE, responding to applications by bereaved families and potential defendants;
- drafting requests for Mutual Administrative and Legal Assistance from authorities worldwide including, in particular, Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East for HMRC and DWP;
- drafting European Arrest Warrants for HMRC.
Quasi-criminal Work
She has experience of inquests involving possible breaches of Health and Safety legislation.
In addition, she has appeared in the Family Courts to obtain evidence used in those courts for the purpose of adducing such evidence against a defendant in criminal proceedings.
Awards and Lectures
Since 2002, she has been appointed to the Attorney General’s Unified List of Prosecuting Counsel. She was promoted to List B in 2006. In 2009 Victoria was appointed to List B of the Serious Fraud Office's List of specialist fraud prosecutors.
She has also been appointed as a Grade 3 advocate in the CPS London List of Advocates.
Victoria Atkins read law at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and has won the following scholarships and prizes at university and at Bar School:
- The Avory Scholarship for excellence at the Bar, Corpus Christi College.
- The Harmsworth Entrance Exhibition, Middle Temple.
- The Winston Churchill Prize, Middle Temple.
- The Ede and Ravenscroft Prize, Middle Temple.
She devises and presents lectures and seminars on health and safety law, both within chambers and externally, in chambers’ external seminar program at the St. Bride Foundation.
