Shane Collery

Although he has had a significant defence practice in the past, since being appointed as Standing Counsel to the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (and formerly HM Customs and Excise) Shane Collery’s practice has inevitably become dominated by prosecution work. In May 2012 Shane was appointed Standing Counsel to BIS, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.

For many years he has been instructed to prosecute some of RCPO’s and now the CPS’s largest cases, acting on behalf of both HMRC and SOCA. In the vast majority he is instructed as the leading junior. He has particularly extensive experience of prosecuting large drugs conspiracies and money laundering but he also undertakes a significant amount of MTIC VAT fraud as well as general advisory work, often across bands of cases.

Almost all of his cases have an international dimension and he regularly has cause to liaise closely with foreign agencies. He also has extensive experience of public interest immunity matters and is regularly instructed by RCPO to advise in relation to the most complex issues. He has a particular interest and specialism in RIPA Part 1 material.

He sits as a Recorder of the Crown Court.

He is also a CPS Grade 4 Prosecutor (the highest rank).

Current cases

These include:

He is also the only member of the independent Bar advising the committee in the Iraq War Inquiry.

He was the Home Office instructed prosecutor in the ‘mock’ trial that took place in mid 2009 using intercept evidence. This is the first every use of such material in a trial context. The existence of this trial was made known to the Press. His role involved reviewing a number of possible ongoing cases and selecting one for prosecution and then putting together a case and prosecuting it. The defence counsel was a Silk. The tribunal was a former High Court Judge. The Disclosure counsel instructed were both Silks.

Lecturing

He has considerable lecturing experience, mainly on matters involving disclosure and the handing of sensitive material. Examples of this experience include:
Giving a series of lectures to lawyers at RCPO on RIPA 2000.

In 2006-2007, lecturing to counsel on the Attorney General’s List during their induction training on handling sensitive material.

In 2006, lecturing over a period of a week to High Court Judges, very senior government lawyers and law officers and senior law enforcement officers of East Caribbean islands on RIPA issues. He also drafted the enabling legislation and a code of practice under the newly passed St Lucian IOCA.

Giving a series of lectures in 2005-2006 to Police and Customs Officers on general legal issues in preparation for the creation of the Serious Organised Crime Agency and then to SOCA officers in relation to sensitive issues.

In 2009 he spoke at the RCPO 2009 conference. Other participants included the Director RCPO, DPP and the Attorney General.

A selection of past cases

R-v-Gilligan, 1996-2000. This was a prosecution for money laundering and drug trafficking. The defendant was suspected of the murder in Ireland of the journalist Veronica Guerin. He was arrested in the UK before the Irish were ready to progress their investigation to arrest. The Irish authorities took a keen interest in the case and it was politically sensitive for that reason. It involved extensive liaison with a number of Irish agencies, including the Criminal Assets Bureau shortly after its creation. That agency was in part created in response to the murder. The drug trafficking involved some 17+ tonnes of Class B drugs and the defendant was also moving firearms at the same time for a political organisation. The drugs went from Holland to Ireland but transited through UK territorial waters. Our drugs jurisdiction depended on powers under CJ(IC)A 1990 and lane separation when traveling South in the English Channel. The case was prepared for trial but ultimately stayed to allow for the defendant to be extradited for murder.

Rep of Ireland –v- Gilligan, 2000. In relation to the above matter, Shane was then instructed on behalf of the Republic of Ireland to extradite Gilligan. This was a hard fought case. The case went to the Divisional Court twice and ultimately to the House of Lords. He was successfully extradited. The Irish authorities effectively adopted the UK drugs case and evidence wholesale as part of its prosecution. Gilligan was convicted of this part of the indictment and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Op Dash. Prosecuting a large drug trafficking case. The Royal Navy, primarily HMS Avenger, assisted in pursuing a ship from UK waters to Portuguese waters. The ship had coopered drugs to an Irish trawler in the Irish Box. The trawler then came to the UK with several tonnes of drugs. The naval action led to a three-week argument on the limits of the Right of Hot Pursuit on the High Seas, an International Law argument that had not featured in UK legal argument during the 20th Century. The DEA and US Coast Guard had extensively broadened the traditionally conservative approach adopted in International law. After several weeks of research at the British Library, the constructive and modern approach of the Crown was successful. An example of the constructive approach was the argument that, whereas traditionally an order to stop by the chasing ship needed to be audible and visual, the Crown argued that it could be by Channel 16 which all ships were required to monitor. Additionally, whereas the traditional cases argued that there must be continuous visual contact during the hot pursuit, now the concept of hot pursuit should also include continuous radar contact. The first instance un-appealed decision in this case is still regularly cited in Canadian Courts and Shane has not infrequent contact with Nova Scotian courts for this reason.
1996-2001: A series of prosecutions of Turkish/Turkish Cypriot heroin importers. They were organised criminal gangs and these were complex cases both evidentially and on an intelligence level. The quantity of heroin seized was in excess of 730 kilos.

R v Zelzele and ors [2001] EWCA Crim 1763; (2001) Crim LR 830 : LTL 29/10/2001 : (2002) 1 CAR(S) 261 : (2002) 1 CAR(S) 62: It was held that after a confiscation hearing had been adjourned beyond the six-month period after conviction, further adjournments did not require there to be "exceptional circumstances" under s.3 Drug Trafficking Act 1994 because the court could then manage its own process.

R v Barrett-Jolley and others, 2002. A prosecution of two commercial pilots for flying a 707 cargo plane into Southend Airport from Jamaica. The plane was registered in Equatorial Guinea. Its journey had started in Belgrade. On arrival at night in the UK, a belly hatch was opened and six bags containing 271 kilos of cocaine worth £22 million were dropped onto the runway. The pilots’ defence involved an allegation that they were working for the CIA/Air America. One of the crew on the plane contacted UK Customs to alert them to the enterprise. He was to be a Queen’s Evidence witness but in light of his continued activities post his arrest this was not pursued. The pilots were convicted. This case involved extensive sensitive issues.

Op Verity, 2002-2003. The prosecution of a series of cases involving the novel use of undercover officers tasked to approach Bureaux de Change seeking to exchange or send abroad using Hawala banking, money that was of clean provenance (it came from the Crown) but dropping hints to bureaux that it was the proceeds of drug trafficking. The purpose was to see if the bureaux reported the transactions to NCIS. If not, arrests followed. This was, and remains, a rapidly developing area in light of R v Loosely and others, a House of Lords case on entrapment.

Disclosure Counsel from 2003 to 2007. Overseeing the disclosure exercise in an operation targeting Class A drug importations. The seizures in the UK as a result amounted to approximately 6½ tonnes of Class A drugs with more seized abroad. To date, this has been the most successful operation of its type. It was intelligence led and 100 plus prosecutions followed, the larger of which Shane prosecuted and all of which he managed from a disclosure perspective. It was a prime example from beginning to end of what can be achieved with a dedicated and focused effort by a law enforcer and prosecuting agency acting in concert against an area of organised crime. Not one of the cases failed for disclosure reasons even though many police forces were involved and the cases were prosecuted by both RCPO and the CPS.

Op Ypres, 2003-2005. The prosecution of a long-running conspiracy to import cocaine in which 700 kilos were seized. This was a case involving concealment of drugs in hundreds of tonnes of cashew nuts.

Op Casa, 2006-2007. An importation case involving importations of 220 kilos of Class A drugs in light aircraft. This was one of the first Serious Organised Crime Agency cases after its creation.

Op Nutant, 2006-2008. Another importation case, this time involvingClass A drugs from Holland, a significant amount of Dutch evidence and the adducing of foreign intercepts. The 38 kilograms of pure heroin worth £2 million were concealed in a 40-foot refrigerated trailer also carrying a large order of flowers. Three defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison terms totalling 41 years.

Interception Commissioner Matter, 2007. Shane advised, prepared a report and managed the process, in respect of a matter mentioned in the Interception Commissioners 2008 Report at paragraph 5.4. In short, he was tasked to ensure, if appropriate, that the Interception Commissioner was satisfied, according to s.57 RIPA 2000, with the adequacy of the safeguards in place at HMRC to deal with disclosure following adverse criticism of an HMRC officer by a Court of Appeal Judge.

Other Relevant Experience