David Walbank KC instructed to defend £39 million confiscation claim in massive VAT and excise fraud prosecution

David Walbank KC has been instructed for the defence in the confiscation proceedings arising from Operation Centrum. The case results from a decade-long criminal investigation by HM Revenue & Customs, culminating in a 6-month trial at the Southwark Crown Court.

The confiscation proceedings centre on the smuggling into the United Kingdom of more than a thousand lorry loads of non-duty-paid alcohol, released from bonded warehouses in France. The prosecution contends that the value of the benefit obtained by David’s client is £39 million, that being the pecuniary advantage he allegedly obtained by evading excise duty on the smuggled loads and by defrauding VAT in the course of a Missing Trader Fraud relating to the sale or purported sale of the alcohol.

David will lead Ben Waidhofer of Foundry Chambers. They are instructed by Daniel Cundy and Naureen Shariff of Blackfords LLP.

David Walbank KC specialises in defending charges of white-collar crime. He is the author of the ‘Crime Brief’ column for New Law Journal and the founder and presenter of [https://crimecast.law/], which hosts more than 250 video reviews of recent criminal judgments.