Since taking silk, David Cocks has been instructed by both prosecution and defence in many long and high-profile cases. He has a wide and varied practice in crime, covering murder, drugs, corporate fraud, VAT fraud, subsidy fraud, fraud in the medical profession and money laundering.
Between July 2003 and May 2005, together with David Walbank, he prosecuted the largest VAT fraud of its time, involving a loss to the Revenue of over £280m (see Dylan Creaven below). A product of this case was the "Protocol for National Disclosure Exercise", which has since been used for all MTIC prosecutions.
He has appeared for doctors charged with fraud and indecent assault and also undertakes professional tribunal work, including the defence of doctors in front of the General Medical Council.
He has taken part in inquests and inquiries. He advises in and undertakes civil cases with a strong criminal element.
He takes a keen interest in horseracing and hunting and recently successfully defended the Master, huntsman and whipper in of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds on charges of illegal hunting. He is also much involved in environmental issues such as the disposal of waste and the development of renewable energy sources. During a substantial part of 2009 he was engaged in work on a public inquiry into the erection of wind turbines on two sites near the Exmoor National Park. He appeared the Rural Exmoor Alliance, one of the parties opposing the development. The opposition was successful and permission was refused on 29.01.10. He is currently retained on other inquiries in Huntingdon and North Devon.
He is also much involved in environmental issues such as the disposal of waste and the development of renewable energy sources. He is currently retained by the Rural Exmoor Alliance in four inquiries into the erection of wind turbines in North Devon.
He is a member of the Antiguan Bar.
Some leading Cases
2009-2010 Public Inquiry-see above
October 2009, Antigua and Barbuda High Court: appeared successfully for the claimant in a trial about title to a luxury villa at English Harbour, Antigua. There were complicated issues fraud by both the defendants and officials of the Antiguan Land Registry to be investigated. In the event the judge found for the claimant (judgement January 12 2010)
March 2007-May 2008 Southwark Crown Court: successful prosecution of Donnan and others for laundering the proceeds of a £30 million VAT fraud. Donnan was an Australian property developer who had used massive sums to finance his property empire, laundering the money through a series of offshore companies and foreign bank accounts. He had consistently attempted to avoid being tried by raising a number of issues as to his mental and physical health, finally coming to rely on his heart condition and high blood pressure. The case was of primary interest on this issue on which a number of distinguished cardiologists gave lengthy and complex evidence. Eventually the judge decided that he was fit to be tried and he pleaded guilty.
July 2006-February 2007 Chelmsford Crown Court: defence of Mathew Ansell for murdering his baby. The prosecution case was that he had picked up the baby by the legs and swung him against some object in the boat where he lived, causing serious head injuries. His case was that he had accidentally dropped the baby onto some steps on the boat. There was no dispute as to the injuries suffered: the question was whether triad of head injuries often seen in this type of case and recently considered by the Court of Appeal in Harris [2005] EWCA Crim 1980 was consistent with accident. Distinguished experts were called on both sides.
December 2005 Southwark Crown Court: successful prosecution of Abu Bakr Mansha for a terrorist offence. He had been in possession a copy of the Sun newspaper with an account of a British soldier "hero" who won the MC in Iraq, together with particulars of the soldier in his handwriting on a separate piece of paper. The prosecution case was that he was in possession of those particulars because he intended to kill or seriously harm him. An expert psychiatrist gave evidence for the defence, with a view to establishing Mansha's low IQ and reading age, indicating a basic ability to read rather than understand. This position was undermined when he had put to him an eloquent and fluent exchange of letters between him and his girlfriend which the expert had not seen before.
July 2003-May 2005, Blackfriars Crown Court: prosecution of Dylan Creaven. Creaven was an Irish trader who ran an Irish company, Silicon Technologies, which dealt in computer chips. He built up a massive trade with UK companies amounting to £1.6 billion over a two-year period. 99.8% of the companies with whom he dealt were fraudulent and were parties to a huge VAT fraud resulting in a loss to the Revenue of at least £280 million. He was alleged to be party to that fraud with a series of the fraudulent UK traders. The defence successfully argued that the prosecuting authority had failed to follow the correct procedures in obtaining evidence from Ireland. It all had to be returned. The efforts to recover the position involved conferences with the AG, specialist extradition counsel, Irish silks and the Irish AG's department. The case was kept afloat on a massively restricted basis involving a VAT loss of £14 million, and was economically presented in comprehensible form in a trial lasting just over a month. Much of the evidence was from an expert accountant with whom many hours were spent in conference.
A protocol for disclosure was created, which is now a model for this type of fraud. The work involved, even with three juniors to assist, was overwhelming, but it prevented any point being taken that the disclosure process was flawed and circumvented any abuse argument on this basis.
September 2002-March 2003, Preston Crown Court: defence of Philip Moore. He was one of a number of defendants who were said to have murdered a drug dealer in a gangland revenge by setting light to him. The case bristled with all kinds of legal difficulties, including complicated disclosure issues and psychiatric evidence on the reliability of prosecution witnesses. The case was stayed as an abuse on the grounds of non-disclosure.
November 2001, Norwich Crown Court: defence of businessman Adrian Bradshaw for abducting and murdering a sixth-form student making her way home on foot after a night out. Her naked body was later found in a ditch 25 miles away. She had been suffocated. The only evidence against him was a soil sample taken from the footwell of his Porsche said to match that of soil at the site where the body was found. He was found not guilty of murder.
2000-January 2008, Harrow Crown Court, General Medical Council, Blackfriars Crown Court and the High Court, Administrative Court: defence of Dr Selvarajan in two sets of criminal proceedings and before the GMC. Dr Selvarajan had been acquitted of a large prescription fraud in April 2000, investigations having been started against him in 1994. He was nevertheless being pursued civilly by the Health Authority and by the GMC for professional misconduct which traversed the same ground as the criminal trial, In addition, he was charged with indecently assaulting a female patient but was acquitted in 2002. Proceedings before the GMC involved two appeals to the Administrative Court before the disciplinary case was finally determined.
November 2000, Central Criminal Court: defence of Roger Frisby for murdering his wife. He beat her to death with a hammer. He had dismembered her body, baked her head in the oven, and disposed of the parts in woodland, at council tips and over the cliffs at Dover. The wife was a violent alcoholic who had made his life and the life of their children a misery. He had been provoked into killing her and did not go to the police because he knew that his children would be taken into care. He was acquitted of murder and convicted of manslaughter.
December 1997, Norwich Crown Court: defence of Squadron Leader Nicholas Tucker for murdering his wife. While serving as a UN military observer in Bosnia he was said to have become infatuated with a young Serbian interpreter with whom he had had an affair. He was alleged to have drowned his wife in a river after faking a car accident in which he drove his car into a river.
Antigua
1991: David Cocks appeared successfully for the government in a gun-running inquiry presided over by Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC. Guns had been supplied from Israel to the Medellín cartel in Colombia. The shipments had gone through the port of St John's in Antigua and the Chief of Police and one government minister were heavily implicated. The hearing was in public and broadcast on the local television. Counsel to the inquiry conducted it as a wide ranging inquisition into the alleged misdoings of the current Bird administration going back many years and there was a swathe of issues to be dealt with besides the gun-running. In the result the government was acquitted of any wrong doing.
December 1998 Antigua and Barbuda High Court: appeared for a prominent Antiguan politician who had been expelled from the United Progressive Party in breach of the party rules and the requirements of natural justice. The judge found in his favour.
January 2000 East Carribean Court of Appeal and Antigua and Barbuda High Court: appeared for the plaintiff in a commercial appeal and a series of commercial interlocutory applications in the High Court.
