Birds Solicitors Criminal Defense Lawyers, Wandsworth, London, SW18

We specialise in criminal defence work and deal with general crime, serious fraud and a large amount of appellate work and CCRC applications.

We deal with no other discipline but crime.

Fraud

Commercial fraud

The firm has been involved in a number of high profile cases including the Robinsons legal aid fraud and the Jubilee Line Extension corruption case.

We represented one of the 29 defendants in a large scale fraud on the legal aid fund by a firm of solicitors called Robinsons who were allegedly making fraudulent claims on the legal aid fund for payment in cases where work had not been undertaken. Our client was acquitted after a trial lasting 13 months.

We acted for a solicitor defendant in a follow on trial to the main Jubilee Line extension corruption case, the case against whom was dropped prior to trial.

We have acted in numerous money laundering offences and VAT "missing trader" frauds involving millions of pounds.

We were a member of the Serious Fraud Panel which was scrapped in January 2008 following the introduction of the VHCC (Very High Costs Case) Panel by the Legal Services Commission. We are a member of the new VHCC Panel which allows us to take on such cases which are often serious fraud cases.

Richard Locke, a serious fraud supervisor under the old panel scheme, has been involved in other major fraud cases both at this firm and previously with Simons Muirhead & Burton including Blue Arrow, Plasser and BCCI. He is able to supervise other firms on the VHCC Panel but which do not have the requisite level of experience of fraud cases.

Birds Solicitors 1 Garratt Lane Wandsworth London SW18 2PT 0208 874 7433 (Emergencies 07966 234994)