Fraud

Valerie frequently prosecutes and defends in lengthy and complex multi-party cases of fraud and corruption. She is regularly instructed by the Insolvency Service to prosecute disqualified directors. She also prosecutes for the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy.

She has been instructed as a leading junior, led junior and junior alone in numerous cases of white-collar crime.

She has defended and prosecuted cases involving company directors, solicitors, accountants and bankers and prosecuted in benefit fraud and charity fraud cases.

She is skilled in dealing with vast amounts of evidence and adept at handling material in large-scale disclosure exercises, considering thousands of items of unused material and advising on what needs to be more carefully examined and/or disclosed. Her attention to detail, diligent and thorough preparation and, specialism in cross examining expert witnesses (across a broad spectrum of disciplines) make her a compelling advocate for her clients in such cases.

Valerie is skilled at getting to the heart of legal arguments. Her strategy in the HBoS fraud case resulted in the prosecution offering no evidence against her client. She has experience of defending a challenge to a terminatory ruling in the Court of Appeal. She recently successfully represented a defendant solicitor in the largest corporate private prosecution involving six defendants.