HMRC accused of systematic disclosure failures

A crown court judge’s decision to stay proceedings in a carousel fraud trial highlights HM Revenue & Customs’ failure to make proper disclosure in criminal proceedings, lawyers say.

R v Vocaturo and others involved allegations of carousel fraud and money laundering in excess of £100m. Vocaturo made an application to have the matter stayed as an abuse of process because of the prosecution’s refusal to disclose 8,000 pages of his business trading records, despite repeated defence requests over 12 months.

Staying proceedings, Judge Teare said: “Even after present counsel have been in control of this case for three or four months, material has been kept from them and the disclosure officer until the date of the trial.”
The prosecution appealed in Vocaturo but the decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Colin Wells, a barrister at 25 Bedford Row, says the decision follows a line of prosecutions which have resulted in a stay or the quashing of a conviction, based on disclosure problems. “Yet again customs’ systematic disclosure failures have led to a stay of criminal proceedings as an abuse of process,” he adds.

Missing trader intra community fraud (carousel fraud) cases involve a number of buffer companies and freight forwarders, leading to more disclosure requests as defendants seek to prove their innocence.