Jane Bewsey KC

Recommendations

She is brilliant in simplifying the most complex of fraud cases for juries and her cross-examination skills are second-to-none in this area.

― Legal 500 (2024)

Even when dealing with the fine details she does not lose sight of the bigger picture.

― Chambers UK (2023)

Jane has a very strong practice.

― Chambers UK (2023)

She shows a very firm grip on her cases

― Chambers UK (2023)

Jane can break difficult concepts down into simple principles for a jury

― Chambers UK (2023)

No one in financial crime cross-examines better than Jane.

― Legal 500 (2023)

She is totally unflappable, a fair prosecutor and a formidable opponent.

― Chambers UK (2022)

She never takes a bad point and is a very effective and efficient advocate.

― Chambers UK (2022)

An eminently sensible silk, who is very good at handling the fine details of a case without losing sight of the bigger picture.

― Legal 500 (2022)

Excellent and very hard-working, with the detail of the case at her fingertips.

― Chambers UK (2021)

A formidable opponent who gets the best results.

― Chambers UK (2021)

Very thorough, fair and effective.

― Chambers UK (2021)

A consummate prosecutor, fair, thorough and in cross-examination often the undoing of even the cleverest witness.

― Legal 500 (2021)

Very fair in her approach. She’s utterly persistent in cross-examination but able to step back and gain the confidence of the judge as well as the jury.

― Chambers UK (2020)

She sets things out with absolute calm and clarity.

― Chambers UK (2020)

Formidable yet personable, and a thorough cross-examiner.

― Legal 500 (2020)

Fraud

Jane is instructed in cases involving Money Laundering & Proceeds of Crime, tax evasion, corporate fraud, mortgage fraud, fraud targeting the NHS and in cases arising from the collapse of companies including allegations of fraudulent trading, insolvency offences, and breaches of company law and in immigration Fraud cases including issues relating to diplomatic immunity.

Additionally, she has been instructed in cases arising from the collapse of companies including allegations of fraudulent trading, insolvency offences and breaches of company law.

Featured cases

• Instructed by the SFO to prosecute offences of conspiracy to defraud and fraudulent trading following the collapse of the Balli Group of companies in 2013 with losses exceeding $300m.
• Operation Manningtree – An HMRC investigation into tax and duty evasion relating to the trans-shipping of solar panels manufactured in China to the UK. Includes a significant international element and close cooperation with EU regulators and investigators.
• Operation Slipstream (2018-2019) – A Home Office investigation into alleged abuses of the Tier 4 student visa system, with linked fraud and dishonesty offences.
• Operation Twilight (2017-2018) – Six defendants were charged with cheating the Revenue by manipulating film schemes. The defendants included a former EY partner, a former police officer, a former city trader, a dentist, the former CEO of a high street travel company and a financial advisor. [Press Report]
• Operation Tarlac (2016-2019) – Instructed to prosecute a series of trials involving 15 defendants alleging counts of conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to money launder, money laundering and perverting the course of justice. It involved an international organised crime group which targeted NHS trusts, councils, educational institutions etc by fraudulently diverting £12.6m from legitimate construction projects through a complex web of bank accounts, principally in the UK and Dubai. Confiscation proceedings in 2018-2019 have recovered significant sums from convicted defendants which will be used to compensate the defrauded organisations. [Press Report]
• Operation Vista (2016) – Instructed to prosecute seven defendants, including those responsible for organising the laundering of funds from a European VAT fraud. Reporting: Operation Vista (2017) EWCA Crim 308; R v Aslam (2017) EWCA Crim 277.
• Operation Bamburgh (2015) – Conspiracy to defraud by a number of corrupt professionals in NE England acting in breach of their professional obligations arising out of a £110m mortgage fraud.
• Operation Twilight (2014) – Instructed to prosecute seven people, including four Gambian diplomats, for conspiracy to cheat the Revenue of £4.8m duty and tax evaded through a systematic abuse of the duty free scheme enjoyed by diplomatic missions in the UK.
• Following a Home Office investigation (2014) – Prosecution of company directors involved in an immigration scam, based upon the fraudulent obtaining of Sponsorship Licences to sponsor non EEA migrant workers under Tier 2 Points Based System and the laundering of the proceeds of the sale of so-called “Work Permits” through a substantial series of complex financial movements.
• Operation Inertia (2007-2012) – Instructed as one of the prosecution team in one of the largest and most complex MTIC frauds to date. This involved 17 defendants and five trials, with estimated losses of £170m over a five-month period.
• Operation Rosary (2012-2014) – MTIC prosecution of Midlands based businessmen linked to Operation Inertia.

Proceeds of Crime and Confiscation

Jane has extensive experience of prosecuting offences under the Money Laundering & Proceeds of Crime regime.
She was instructed in one of the first prosecutions for money laundering offences where no predicate offence was charged R v El-Kurd (2001) Crim L.R.234.

Jane was Special Advisor to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Proceeds of Crime matters.

She is familiar with the confiscation regime under POCA and has been instructed to act in POCA cases in the Crown Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Featured cases

• R v Fulton [2019] EWCA Crim 163: Appeal against confiscation order concerning what constituted a power of disposition and control over a bank account for the purposes of calculating benefit from criminal conduct.
• R v El-Kurd (2001) Crim L.R.234 – This case remains a leading authority in conspiracy for the proposition that it may not be necessary to prove that the carrying out of an agreement will necessarily result in the commission of a specific offence, provided that it can be shown that it would, or was intended to result in the commission of at least one or two identified offences.

Serious & Organised Crime

Jane has extensive experience of prosecuting organised crime gangs engaged in drug trafficking and their linked financial activities including money laundering.

Between 2006 and 2009, she was instructed in relation to a series of linked cases arising from an intelligence led Serious Organised Crime investigation and a joint investigatory initiative with Holland.

Featured cases

• R v H and eight others – Conspiracy to import cocaine.
• R v T – Money laundering.
• R v S and S – Money laundering.
• R v K and seven others – Importing heroin, eight defendants.
• R v R and two others – Conspiracy to import cocaine.

Drugs Offences

Long standing knowledge of and experience in prosecuting drug smuggling and distribution cases and ancillary offences.

Featured cases

• Kingston Crown Court (2008) – Instructed to prosecute this allegation of conspiracy to import cocaine from Africa to the UK over an 18-month period, involving a large number of individual importations by between 15 and 20 different couriers. The prosecution was complex, relying on previous prosecutions of couriers and evidence from abroad including Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and Ireland.
• Inner London Crown Court (2008) – A SOCA investigation in which it was alleged that the principal defendant ran a “drugs warehouse” from his business premises from which drugs of every class were recovered including the largest ever quantity of amphetamine seized in the UK.

Education

• MA, Cambridge University

Memberships

• CBA
• South Eastern Circuit
• Inner Temple

Publications

• Arlidge and Parry on Fraud, sixth edition, Sweet and Maxwell, contributing author

Other expertise

• Business Crime & Fraud

Latest news