Tom Payne specialises in fraud and serious organised crime.
He has a long history of successful involvement in high profile fraud and drug trafficking cases. These cases have routinely involved the provision of extensive advice before charge, thorny issues of disclosure and hard-fought confiscation proceedings.
He regularly appears in the Court of Appeal and High Court. In 2009 he also appeared in the House of Lords in Briggs-Price [2009] UKHL 19.
In 2006 he was appointed to List B of the Attorney General's Unified Panel of Prosecuting Advocates. He is regularly instructed by OFT, RCPO, DEFRA, DWP and DBIS.
He has also been instructed by HMRC Criminal Advisory Team to advise on discrete legal questions concerning search warrants, production orders and issues of disclosure. In January 2009 he was instructed to appear against leading counsel in a case concerning whether the recipients of production orders under PACE 1984 are entitled to costs of compliance; see HMRC v Financial Investment Advisers [2009] Lloyd’s Rep FC 221.
In 2009 he was appointed to List B of the Serious Fraud Office list of approved counsel.
He is a Grade 3 CPS prosecutor.
FRAUD
Recent highlights have included instructions to advise the Office of Fair Trading in connection with its criminal cartel investigations. He is currently prosecuting Operation Condor (the BA/Virgin price-fixing case). He also prosecuted Operation Heron (the marine hose cartel), the very first prosecution for the cartel offence under the Enterprise Act 2002. He has unrivalled knowledge of the cartel offence, applications for leniency and immunity from prosecution, complex issues of third party disclosure and the developing relationship between the OFT and the US Department of Justice.
Notable cases include:
IB [2009] EWCA Crim 2575; [2009] WLR 357: instructed as junior counsel for the OFT. This appeal concerned whether the cartel offence under s.188 Enterprise Act 2002 is a ‘national competition law’ within the meaning of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2003. The Court of Appeal determined that it is not, and that the Crown Court has jurisdiction to try the cartel offence even though it is not a competition authority designated under article 35 of that Regulation.
Operation Condor (R v George and others) (2008 to date): alleged price fixing of passenger fuel surcharges by directors of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. This will be the first contested criminal cartel case. Instructed as sole junior counsel for the OFT. Advised throughout the investigation. The trial will be heard in April 2010.
HMRC v Financial Investment Advisers [2009] Lloyd’s Rep FC 221: appeared against Queens Counsel (Jonathan Fisher QC). This case concerned whether recipients of PACE 1984 production orders are entitled to costs of compliance and of legal advice, and the width of the discretion to award costs.
Operation Victor (R v RM and others) (2009 to date): multi-handed conspiracy to supply unauthorised and prescription only medicines. Junior counsel for the Crown.
Operation Fastback (R v Cranswick and others) (2009 to date): £200m MTIC fraud. Junior counsel for the Crown.
Operation Vine (R v Pearce and others) (2008 to date): conspiracy to defraud EMI, Universal, Sony and Warner by the commercial distribution of approximately £30 million of media product sent to the defendants for secure destruction. Junior counsel for the Crown.
Operation Inertia (R-v-Ravjani and others) (2008 to date): £100m MTIC fraud. Junior counsel for the Crown.
Operation Heron (R v Whittle and others) (2008): The marine hose cartel. This was the first prosecution for the cartel offence under s.188 Enterprise Act 2002. The defendants pleaded guilty in the UK having entered into plea agreements in the United States. Instructed as sole junior counsel for the Crown. Co-authored M. Lucraft, T. Payne and D. Rawlings,
The Dunlop Three: the cartel offence makes its debut (Archbold News Issue 1, 2009).
www.business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article4115895.ece
Op. Carpet (R v Abbas and others) (2007): £1m conspiracy to defraud by cloning credit cards. Junior counsel for the Crown.
Operation Advice (R v May, Stapleton and Bravard) (2007): MTIC fraud; appeals against conviction successfully resisted. Junior counsel for the Crown.
SERIOUS AND ORGANISED CRIME
R v Briggs-Price (2009): successfully resisted appeal to House of Lords against £3m confiscation order; [2009] UKHL 19; [2009] WLR 142. The judgement confirms that the prosecution can prove the derivation of benefit from drug trafficking by proving the commission of other specific drug trafficking with which the defendant was not indicted. To do so does not violate the presumption of innocence.
Op. La Fombra (R-v-Patel and others) (2009): SOCA money laundering case. Junior counsel for the Crown.
Op. Scantly (R v Rothenburg and Stockall) (2008/9): Importation of £2m heroin. Appeals against conviction in 2009 on grounds concerning disclosure and fresh evidence. Convictions upheld; see Stockall [2009] EWCA Crim 1159; also [2009] EWCA Crim 1897.
Op. Octane (R v Grant Wilkinson) (2008): conspiracy to convert imitation MAC 10 submachine guns, conspiracy to supply converted firearms with intent to endanger life. This widely reported case was based upon the largest ballistic investigation yet to have been undertaken in the UK, proving that the converted guns had been used in over 50 separate shooting incidents. Junior counsel for the Crown. See
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4620362.ece
R v Andronicou and others (2008): Importation of £1m cocaine.
Op. Hispid (R v Walker and others) (2007): Conspiracy to supply cocaine. Twelve-week trial resulted in conviction of all principal defendants. Evidence included all types of covert surveillance and testimony from a member of the trafficking gang.
Op. Glad (R v Rose and others) (2007): Conspiracy to handle £1m goods stolen from Gillette’s premises evacuated during the Buncefield oil depot explosion.
Op. Helmsman (R v Elliott and others) (2006): Conspiracy to supply cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis. Evidence included hundreds of pages of transcripts of covertly recorded conversations and other covert surveillance evidence.
Op. Giftwrapped (R v Woolley and others) (2005): Conspiracy to import £1m cocaine. Seven defendants convicted at retrial. Appeared alone in the Court of Appeal successfully opposing three appeals against conviction on the grounds that the case should not have proceeded beyond the close of the prosecution case; see [2006] EWCA Crim 1707
OTHER CRIME
Rockall v DEFRA [2008] EWHC 1150 (Admin); also[2008] EWHC 2408 (Admin): appeal by case stated. Appeared as leading counsel for the Crown against the Shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC.
PUBLICATIONS
M. Lucraft, T. Payne and D. Rawlings, The Dunlop Three: the cartel offence makes its debut (Archbold News Issue 1, 2009).
1996 - BA Jurisprudence, Trinity College, University of Oxford
1998 - LLM, University of Birmingham
1998 - Jules Thorn Scholarship, Middle Temple
1998 - Called to the Bar, Middle Temple
2006 - List B, Attorney General's panel of prosecuting advocates
2009 – List B, Serious Fraud Office list of approved counsel
Criminal Bar Association
Competition Law Association
Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association
