Ashmans Solicitors successfully applied for the proceedings to be stayed in this high profile case The Defendant, a Company Director, was charged with fraud by false representation amounting to over £660,000. The Prosecution brought by Royal Mail alleged that the Defendant defrauded them of the above amount by falsely representing that weight and size of packages distributed were accurately recorded when they were not thereby exposing the Royal Mail Group Limited to a risk of loss.

Whilst it was evident from the papers that the amount was as suggested, it was based on presumptions made by the Prosecution. We were able to demonstrate through our proactive approach that Royal Mail Group was not the only medium that was used to make good the orders received by our client’s company. He had utilised a number of other courier services to have his goods delivered. The case was also out of the ordinary in that there were production orders served on both Amazon and Paypal to obtain data from them. Without this information the Prosecution case would not have been successful.

Furthermore the case was particularly unique in that the Defendant had left the jurisdiction of the UK and issues of whether the client was a voluntary absconder were raised by the Prosecution. We were able to successfully apply for the proceedings to be stayed due to the Defendant being classified as a voluntary absconder. Furthermore monies which had been restrained by virtue of a Court Order could also not be “got at” by the Prosecution due to the issue of the Defendant being an involuntary absconder.