Fraud (Civil)

17.07.23

Supreme Court halts Quincecare expansion

On 12 July 2023, the Supreme Court in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK PLC [2023] UKSC 25 reversed a decision by the Court of Appeal effectively extending a duty of care owed by banks to their customers to not carry out payment instructions where the bank ought to have reasonable grounds to believe that those…

12.12.22

Service by email to multiple addresses held to be invalid

In R (on the application of Tax Returned Ltd and others) v Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2022] EWHC 2515 (Admin), the Administrative Court provided clarification of when service by email is capable of being effective.  The case concerned HMRC’s decision to implement a new mandatory tax form for claiming tax relief on…

3.11.22

Brett Wilson LLP ranked in The Times list of the top 250 law firms in England and Wales

Brett Wilson LLP has been listed in the Times Best Law Firms directory.  The directory lists the top 250 law firms in England and Wales (out of some 10,000 firms).  The firm is commended in the technology, media and telecoms category for its defamation and reputation management work. The firm’s entry can be found here….

26.10.22

Holding a director personally liable for wrongdoing committed by a company

Whether a director can be held personally liable for wrongs committed by the company is always a complex and fact-specific question, however the Court of Appeal’s decision in Barclay-Watt v Alpha Panareti Public Ltd [2022] EWCA Civ 1169 provides new clarity on the principles that the Court will apply in such cases. Facts Alpha Panareti…

20.10.22

Brett Wilson LLP and its lawyers recommended in Chambers and Partners 2023 directory

Brett Wilson LLP’s media and communications law and criminal defence departments have again been recommended by the prestigious Chambers and Partners directory as leading departments in their field. In the firm’s media and communications law department, partners Iain Wilson (noted for ‘his exhaustive knowledge and valuable insight’), Max Campbell (‘first-class acumen and frighteningly accurate ability to…

8.08.22

Regulating the unregulatable? Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) and European Crypto-Assets Regulation

The EU has reached a provisional agreement on rules to regulate crypto-assets in Europe. As stated in their press release, the European Council presidency and parliament have agreed on the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) proposal to cover unbacked crypto-assets, “stablecoins”, trading venues and crypto-asset wallets.  The Council maintains that the proposed regulatory framework will “protect…

24.06.22

Can I reclaim money I have lost to fraudsters from my bank?

This article briefly considers the scope of Quincecare duty of care owed by banks, recently increased in scope by the Court of Appeal in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK PLC [2022] EWCA Civ 318. What is Quincecare duty? Banks have an obligation to protect their customers from fraud. Before the recent ruling of the Court…

23.06.22

Ghost in the shell game

Dishonesty, decentralised finance, and theft on the blockchain On 14 October 2021, Andean “Andy” Medjedovic, an 18-year-old graduate student from Canada managed to extract US$16m-worth of cryptoassets from a decentralised finance protocol Indexed, through an exploit (a software tool designed to take advantage of a flaw in a computer system). Mr Medjedovic, however, maintains that…

Service of legal proceedings by NFT: turning the tables on scammers?

In what is believed to be a world first, on 6 June 2022, the New York Supreme Court allowed American law firm Holland & Knight to serve a temporary restraining order on a defendant by way of Non-Fungible Token (NFT).  In LCX AG v John Does 1-2, the Defendant is accused of being involved in…

18.02.22

NFTs and fraud: What to look out for and what you can do if you are scammed

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are the new hot topic in the crypto space, with global NFT sales passing the $4billion mark at the beginning of 2022. Of course, with so much money at stake in an industry that has little to no regulation by design, it was only a matter of time before fraudsters began taking…