Notable Cases
Current Cases
Operation SALMON (Southwark Crown Court – trial listed 2028): Large-scale payroll “outsourced labour model” / mini-umbrella fraud using layers of outsourcing, sourcing and micro-employer companies (MECs) to evade VAT and employment taxes. Prosecution estimate VAT cheated at c.£75m, plus Employment Allowance claims of £23.2m across 7,000+ MECs, with additional alleged money-laundering transfers of £6.87m from the Backoffice One (BOL) account.
Operation CILANTRO (Southwark Crown Court – trial listed 2027): Large-scale cash-to-crypto money-laundering conspiracy (Aug 2020–May 2021) involving receipt of bulk “street cash”, high-volume deposits into personal accounts, rapid conversion via multiple crypto-exchanges into Bitcoin/USDT, and onward transfer to offshore receiving addresses; alleged laundering c.£17.5m.
Operation WORRIT: (Southwark trial listed 2027) multi-handed money-laundering case alleging “cash-out” arrangements in which funds were paid into a network of company bank accounts and then withdrawn/paid out in bulk cash to beneficiaries, supported by CCTV/surveillance and Telegram messaging/ledgers. The prosecution rely on multiple cash seizures and ledger evidence showing substantial throughput, alongside payments to crypto-currency brokers and layered transfers through associated accounts.
Operation BUZZARD Birmingham Crown Court – trial listed 2027): HMRC / West Midlands RECU money-laundering investigation into an OCG laundering proceeds predominantly from alcohol diversion fraud, using high-volume cash “smurfing” and layering through UK company accounts and onward transfers offshore. Prosecution case: up to £100,000 cash deposited daily; c.£46m laundered (indictment period 01/01/2015–01/02/2018); £360,000 cash seized (with further overseas layering and integration into property/goods).
Operation RAILROADIANA (Portsmouth trial listed 2026): Multi-handed NCA maritime importation case involving RHIB acquisition/fit-out and coordinated landing-party offload of c.500kg Class A cocaine (c.£13.5m wholesale / c.£40m street) culminating at Medmerry Beach on 19 August 2024.
Operation RESEAT (Maidstone trial listed 2026): Multi-handed, phone-driven large-scale drugs supply investigation alleging movement and supply of cocaine and MDMA (21 November 2024–6 September 2025), involving courier-style trips and multiple bag handovers captured on CCTV/call-data (EncroChat features).
Southwark Crown Court (trial listed 2026): Alleged fraud by abuse of position as a bank Business Development Manager involving unauthorised removal of security “inhibits” on 51 bank accounts to facilitate fraudulent transfers. Crown allege £1.79m transferred out (bank losses calculated at over £1m) through rapid movement of funds to multiple external accounts.
Business Crime and Financial Services
Operation BARBADOS: Large-scale conspiracy to cheat the public revenue centred on a trading company, using genuine trading in electrical goods and metals to generate output VAT and a fictitious VOIP trade (false invoices/CDRs) to create input VAT to offset it. Crown allege operation Jan 2011–Mar 2014 with VAT withheld from HMRC of over £20m; prosecuted as an OCG case involving 24 defendants.
Operation CENTRUM: Large-scale alcohol diversion fraud (2009–2010) in which duty-suspended alcohol was removed from French bonded warehouses under false paperwork and diverted into the UK market; linked VAT fraud using false AAD/documentation chains and “missing/buffer traders” to disguise origin.
Operation POLLUX (ongoing): Solicitor charged with money laundering and fraud;
Operation EXHORT: Linked mortgage and insurance fraud; 42-handed case including “cash for crash” and mortgage fraud.
Operation HAYRICK: Large-scale MTIC “carousel” VAT fraud involving wholesale trading in mobile phones and computer processing units, with goods circulating through chains of UK traders and back out of the UK (and, on the prosecution case, ultimately back towards their point of origin), creating a circular paper trail. A sophisticated, concealed VAT evasion scheme proved through extensive document and money-trail analysis, including third-party payment mechanisms and “off-set” documentation designed to cancel VAT liabilities.
Operation ONSET: MTIC fraud involving mobile phones; alleged VAT liability £140m.
Operation STEAMROLLER: Three connected alleged boiler-room frauds (total investment £100m); described by the SFO as its largest fraud prosecution.
Operation RUST: Multi-million-pound diversion fraud involving alcohol and cigarettes.
Operation ALBANY Multi-million-pound international money-laundering prosecution brought by HMRC, involving the movement of cash through multiple UK bank accounts and onward transfers to accounts in Germany and the Netherlands. The case involved substantial banking and telephone evidence. The Crown alleged a family-run operation using multiple companies and bank accounts, ostensibly trading in alcoholic beverages, to facilitate the transfer of criminal property out of the UK.
Misconduct in Public Office
Operation ELVEDON: Conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office (high-profile media investigation).
Drug Conspiracies
Operation GUINNESS: Large multi-handed conspiracy to supply Class A drugs into the UK.
Operation TALAGIA: (Encrochat)NCA prosecution for conspiracy to evade the prohibition on exportation of Class A controlled drugs: alleged concealment of 448.4kg MDMA within an excavator exported from the UK to Australia (Jan–Jun 2020).
Operation VENETIC: (Encrochat) represented multiple cases under this NCA led Operation encrochat prosecutions, which were the biggest and most sophisticated operations of its kind in the UK in 2020
Official Secrets Act
R v X Offences under the Official Secrets Act; trial held in camera. Charges under sections 2 and 3 of the Official Secrets Act (Aikens J); case concerned international policy between the UK and the US.
Civil / High Court
King’s Bench Division: blackmail; Norwich Pharmacal Order against telephone companies to identify the perpetrator.
Regulatory and Disciplinary Proceedings
Appeared before professional regulators including the GDC and GMC.
Violent Crime
Extradition; Murder; Attempted Murder
