Simon Farrell KC

BA (Hons) MA Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University

Diploma in Law (City University)

Hardwicke Scholar Lincolns Inn

Thomas Moore Award, Lincolns Inn

Kings School, Canterbury

Crown Court Recorder (2007) and appointed to sit at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) (2013)

Member of Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) Asset Recovery Committee (2008)

Attorney General’s A list of prosecuting counsel in serious fraud cases (2002)

Deemster (High Court Judge), Isle of Man (2012)

SFO Prosecution List of Approved King’s Counsel (2009, 2013 and in 2020)

SFO PoCA List of Approved King’s Counsel (2009, 2013 and in 2020)

Called to the Brunei Bar 2019 (ad hoc)

The Honourable Society of Lincolns Inn

Money Laundering Law and Regulation (OUP) (2011)

Guide to the Fraud Act 2006 (OUP 2007)

Co-author “Asset Recovery: Criminal Confiscation and Civil Recovery” ed Owen and Smith (Butterworths 2004 and 2nd Edition 2007)

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Butterworths 2003)

Notable Civil & Criminal Tax cases

HMRC v Nellsar Limited (2023) UKFTT

Simon appeared for the taxpayer in this leading case which concerned how assets, including real property and goodwill, should be accounted for upon a business acquisition under FRS 7.9.

Octagon Green Solutions Limited v HMRC (2023) UKUT 268

Simon successfully appealed to the UTT who ruled that OGS Limited could appeal two HMRC assessments for VAT and Landfill Tax notwithstanding that they were 4 years out of time. The case gives important guidance on when appeals can be permitted out of time and whether new evidence can be admitted on an appeal.

Jabble v HMRC (2023) UKFTT 213

A case concerning the issuing of a Personal Liability Notice (PLN) against a taxpayer who it was alleged was a knowing party to the evasion of duty connected to the importation of alcohol. The appeal considered the applicability of the Kittel test in these circumstances.

Synectiv Ltd v HMRC [2018] FTT TC 2010 0699

Simon successfully acted for a company before the FTT concerning its claim for £1.4m of VAT in respect of mobile phone exports which had been wrongly denied by HMRC.

Synectiv Limited v HMRC (Upper Tax Tribunal) [2017] UKUT 0099 (TCC)

An important case in which the Upper Tax Tribunal quashed the decision of the First Tier Tribunal (Tax) for inadequate reasoning in its judgement.

PC v HMRC-[2017] TC/2016/02491

Simon successfully acted for a senior barrister in the First Tier Tax Tribunal who HMRC had wrongly found guilty of deliberate tax evasion. The penalties imposed by HMRC for deliberate tax evasion were quashed.

Notable Money Laundering cases

R v Porter (2023) EWCA Crim 1485

Simon appeared in the Court of Appeal in an important case concerning the issue as to when property was criminal because it represented the proceeds of underlying crime.

R Jiang (Shunjian) (2022) EWCA Crim 1516

Simon appeared in the Court of Appeal in an important case concerning unregulated money transfers and criminal property.

HMRC v JP [2022]

Simon was instructed to defend in a money laundering case concerning £30 million of sterling cash claimed by HMRC to be criminal property as it represented the proceeds of alcohol diversion fraud.

PP v RR & NB [2020/21]

Simon was instructed to defend in a corruption and money laundering case involving two High Court Judges before the Brunei High Court and the Brunei Court of Appeal.

R v SJ [2021]

Money laundering case at Southwark Crown Court involving large amounts of sterling cash exchanged in London in return for equivalent Chinese Yuan/Renminbi transferred in China and then used to buy real property within the UK. The legal issue was whether obtaining sterling in breach of the UK Money Laundering Regulations in the UK had the consequence that it became criminal property within the meaning of section 340 POCA 2002.

Re A Bank [2021]

Investigation into foreign a bank’s receipt of a large payment of 500m USD from the DRC suspected to be criminal property. Simon was instructed to advise and to write an expert’s report for the bank’s Regulator.

R v S [2020]

Simon acted for S in a case in which the funds of a businessman from Malawi had been frozen within the UK suspected of being the proceeds of corruption. The FO’s were lifted.

R v B [2019/20]

Simon was instructed to advise in a £300 million money laundering investigation connected to the gold industry.

Notable Bribery & Corruption cases

Re S [2024]

Simon is instructed to advise in a major bribery and corruption investigation in the UK and Malawi.

PP v RR & NB [2021]

Simon instructed for the defence in a corruption case involving two High Court Judges before the Brunei High Court and the Court of Appeal.

R v Alstom Network UK Ltd (2019) EWCA Crim 1318

Seminal case in the Court of Appeal in which Simon successfully argued that there could be a fair trial of a corporate defendant for conspiracy to corrupt where its guilt depended on the guilt of an individual – its directing mind and will – in circumstances where the individual was neither indicted as a co-conspirator nor otherwise available to give evidence at the trial.

Notable Confiscation & Asset Recovery cases

Hargreaves v Powys CC (2022) EWHC 3176

This was a Case Stated to the High Court which concerned the circumstances in which it was permissible for the Magistrates Court to order that a default term of imprisonment be activated upon non-payment of a confiscation order.

NCA v CAO (2021)

Civil recovery case in the High Court in which the NCA claimed that Chinese nationals owned properties which were obtained through unlawful conduct. One issue was whether the use of unregistered cash agents in London had the consequence that funds generated were unlawfully obtained within the meaning of section 304 POCA 2002.

R v Zuman and Arshid Khan (2021) EWCA Crim 399

Simon successfully argued before the Court of Appeal that an £8m confiscation order should be quashed on a number of grounds including that the proceedings had been unfair in the Court below and that the statutory assumptions had been wrongly applied.

R v Hameed (Feezan) (2020) EWCA Crim 1768

Case in the Court of Appeal concerning the rules in confiscation proceedings regarding the admissibility of hearsay evidence.

NCA v R (2020) – Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court

Simon successfully obtained the discharge of an Account Freezing Order for £3 million under section 303Z4 of POCA 2002 (as amended).

NCA v Odewale and Yadav (2020) EWHC 1609 (Admin)

Civil recovery case before the High Court involving whether Rolex watches and large amounts in bank accounts were recoverable property within the meaning of section 304 of POCA 2002 as having been obtained “through unlawful conduct”.

Notable Extradition cases

Peter Neville v Secretary of State for Justice [2021] EWHC 957 (Admin)

A case involving a UK national sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for drugs offences and who was then transferred back to the UK under the 1991 Prisoner Transfer Treaty with Thailand. The issue was whether PN was a transferred life prisoner under section 273 of the CJA 2003 and therefore had the right to have a tariff set by the High Court for his release or whether, in the light of Thai Royal Pardons, he was to be treated as determinate prisoner.

United States v Dempsey [2018] 4 WLR 110

Important High Court extradition case concerning dual criminality and the relationship between the US offence of obstruction of justice and the English offence of perverting the course of justice.

SD v Netherlands [2012] EWHC 697 (Admin)

Successfully obtained the quashing of a European Arrest Warrant for a senior banker as it lacked particularity and failed the dual criminality test.

Notable Criminal Litigation & Appeals cases

R v Cooper (2023) EWCA Crim 945

Simon appeared in this leading case in the Court of Appeal which considered in what circumstances was it permissible for the Crown Court to pass a consecutive sentence for a money laundering offence in addition to the sentence for the predicate offence.

PP v RR & NB [2019-2021]

Simon was instructed to defend in a corruption and money laundering case involving High Court Judges before the Brunei High Court and the Brunei Court of Appeal on the Island of Borneo.

R v Zuman and Arshid Khan (2021) EWCA Crim 399

Simon successfully argued before the Court of Appeal that a £8m confiscation order should be quashed on a number of grounds including that the proceedings had been unfair in the Court below and that the statutory assumptions had been wrongly applied.