Operation Wolf - Thames Valley police forced to ditch case

Another success for MPR Solicitors in July at Aylesbury Crown Court when the prosecution were pushed into a corner by our relentless pursuit of disclosure issues prior to trial in a multi-defendant kidnap and false imprisonment case. We represented 2 defendants in the case charged with false imprisonment and kidnap with firearms. We had taken over representation of 2 of the defendants after they requested a transfer to our firm as they did not feel they were being properly represented by their respective solicitors. Both were in custody when MPR Solicitors took over their cases and the first pressing issue for them was bail having had previous unsuccessful attempts by their previous legal representatives.

We were able to obtain transfers of representation under the Legal Aid scheme very swiftly as it was early on in the proceedings and set about securing their bail which we did after full and proper bail applications were made to the crown court at the right time. Both were released on conditional bail.

The next item on the agenda was to prepare their cases meticulously and not wait for the prosecution to serve their entire case. It was evident that this type of case would require a pro-active defence and we set about locating and securing relevant CCTV which could assist our clients’ defence cases and tracing and interviewing defence witnesses which the police had failed to do despite being notified of the details.

It became evident to us that the police had not properly investigated this case and that there was quite some doubt as to the credibility and veracity of the alleged victim’s account in the ABE interview transcripts and videos. Both our clients denied the allegations strenuously and not guilty pleas were entered right at the outset.

We formed a case strategy closely with our clients making sure from the outset there was no conflict of interests before we took both their cases on.

Then we hit the Prosecution with a list of disclosure requests having served detailed defence case statements for both clients. The secondary disclosure requests proved too embarrassing for the Prosecution and in the end after some lengthy discussions at court, all charges were dropped against our clients.

The defence team was headed by Abdullah Al-Yunusi who is Partner and Barrister at the Firm and assisted by Seema Parikh and Kinneri Patel. All three work within the Complex Crime Team at MPR Solicitors LLP.