Narita Bahra KC was instructed to defend an employee of Royal Mail Revenue Protection Department who was alleged to have assisted a Company to defraud the Royal Mail of approximately £33 million pounds of revenue fraud and of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The prosecution relied in the main upon a witness, the owner and controlling mind of the Company which had perpetrated the fraud, who gave Queen’s Evidence to seek to secure convictions against four Royal Mail employees.

Private prosecutions are an extremely valuable power for Royal Mail, who have confirmed their intention to crack down and pursue offenders via Private prosecutions instead of traditional reliance on the Crown Prosecution Service.

Private prosecutions can be commenced by any private individual, or entity who/which is not acting on behalf of the police or other prosecuting authority.

The Crown sought to rely on a combination of CCTV footage, cell site, digital media and telephone evidence to secure a conviction against the client.

At trial, at the close of the prosecution case, Narita and Tom succeeded in persuading the Prosecution and the Judge that there was no case to answer against their client on the charges faced; not guilty verdicts were therefore received from the Jury.

The trial for the co-defendants continued.