Prosecutors drop £13M tax fraud case after Rahman Ravelli spearheads abuse of process argument

A decade-long tax fraud case was abandoned after Rahman Ravelli brought an abuse of process argument that forced prosecutors to offer no further evidence.

In the first week of the trial of four former film production company managers accused of a £13M tax fraud, the Crown and court were put on notice that the Crown had failed to comply with its own Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 Code of Practice disclosure obligations.

Rahman Ravelli, which represented a defendant, made the argument that the court should not permit the trial to proceed and requested that it hear abuse of process submissions. The Crown eventually agreed that it had failed in its duty to comply with its disclosure obligations and, therefore, could not pursue its prosecution of the defendants.

As a result, the defendants had not guilty verdicts returned against them. They had been accused of running a scheme involving false VAT returns between 2009 and 2015.

Rahman Ravelli’s Senior Partner Aziz Rahman, Partner Nicola Sharp and Senior Legal Advisor Zeeshan Khan worked on the case.

The dropping of the case was reported by Law360.

Featured at: Law360