Singled out by The Lawyer as being "exceptionally good", Vincent Coughlin has an outstanding track record with a breadth of experience ranging through complex tax and revenue frauds, terrorism, homicide, corporate corruption, money laundering, gang killings, drugs importations and sexual offences. Demand for Vincent's court style has twice led to his appearance in the legal aid top ten high earners. His practice is predominantly defence based, and his tactical know-how, jury advocacy and genuine commitment to his clients have produced results that have often confounded his opponents.
Vincent is able to provide high quality advice and representation in serious crime, complex fraud, and a wide range of crime related, regulatory and disciplinary matters. His practice covers the spectrum of crime but has an increasing emphasis on financial and commercial criminal and regulatory investigations.
Vincent is on the Bar Council Public Access Directory of Barristers. He is also a door tenant at chambers in Cardiff, Birmingham and Nottingham.
Complex Fraud
Vincent’s experience of fraud has been amassed over more than 30 years. His areas of practice have included tax investigations, business crime and corporate defence, ‘spot-price’ fixing and commercial and investor fraud. Due to the nature of his work at the advisory stages, many cases remain confidential. He has recently acted for a building contractor in an alleged £50 million building P.A.Y.E. fraud. He has also acted for an Independent Financial Advisor who, whilst acting as a trustee for a pension fund when ineligible to do so, had devised an off-shore vehicle to fraudulently liberate capital sums from Occupational Pension Schemes. (R v Russell [2004] EWCA Crim 1041)
Vincent is presently instructed to represent the central defendant in a major ‘back-to-back’ mortgage fraud scheduled for trial in September 2012, and is instructed to defend an accountant charged with laundering £14 million through client business accounts.
More recent successes have included R v Anant Patel & Others (Operation La Fombra); successfully defending a high-profile businessman against S.O.C.A. Middle Markets Team led accusations into money laundering and drug trafficking following the embarrassment of large amounts of cash and lignocaine recovered from the search of his premises (2009) – Southwark Crown Court.
VAT Prosecutions and Tribunals
Vincent has been defending in VAT carousel and M-Tic frauds since the 1990s .He successfully represented two of the ‘Bond House’ defendants. Equally at home before a jury or a VAT tribunal he has appeared more recently in the following national cases:-
R v Jaspal Sandhu – Vincent obtained not guilty verdicts for the company secretary of a key trader in a £50 million MTIC Vat fraud following a four month trial. (Operation Heyrick) (Birmingham Crown Court 2010 )
R v Johnson & Others; (Operation Emersed) Vincent acted for the director of a freight forwarding company that was at the centre a £70 million Euro-carousel fraud whose agency had facilitated almost every deal across the conspiracy. (2007) – Wolverhampton Crown Court
R v Birring & Others; (Operation Elemi) Defending in a complex trial focusing on the alleged laundering of the multi-million pound proceeds of an M-TIC fraud through high value gaming across national Casino networks. The central accusation against Birring foundered after Vincent’s cross-examination of the Casino accountants and staff staff.(2008) - Birmingham Crown Court.
R v Vass & Others; (Operation Vehicle) Missing trader intra-community fraud – representing the main defendant in £80 million VAT fraud which had provided a life-style for the defendant that would have put an investment banker to shame. (2004) – Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Public/Corporate Corruption and Bribery
Vincent’s recent success in the nationally publicised collapse of the ‘Cardiff Three’ police corruption case (Swansea Crown Court, 2011), the largest prosecution of its kind ever brought, is just the latest in a series of high profile cases in which he has been involved.
Following the successful appeal of the 'Cardiff Three' for their convictions for the 1988 Valentine’s Day murder of Cardiff prostitute Lynette White, Vincent was instructed to represent one of the lead detectives charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and corruption. After a five month trial during which the original murder was re-litigated, and following protracted legal argument regarding the failures of the disclosure process, the Crown offered no further evidence, claiming that important files that might assist the Defence had been shredded by members of the police prosecution team. The files have since been recovered and the CPS/Police handling of the Swansea Trial has now been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission as well as the Crown Prosecution Inspectorate.
Other recent cases involving Vincent in this specialist field are:
R v Simpson & Others; Defending a company secretary for her participation in a long term corporate corruption case involving the Mars Corporation (2005) – Reading Crown Court
R v Lee & Others; Public corruption charges against an ex Army Officer arising from the unlawful removal and export of tank equipment from M.O.D. base at A.B.R.O. Donnington. (2005) – Stafford Crown Court
R v Rashid & Others; A three month trial in which Vincent defended a solicitor charged with perverting the course of justice following his destruction and manipulation of evidence while purporting to represent gang members being investigated for the attempted murder of a rival.(2005) – Birmingham Crown Court
R v Karagozlu & Others; defending the main defendant of a London/Cyprus organised crime group charged with the corruption of a junior Customs & Excise employee who had subverted a multi-million pound Customs investigation through the destruction of surveillance evidence and the deletion of computer data on their behalf. (2001 – Central Criminal Court)
Following the enactment of the Bribery Act 2010, Vincent is able to provide advice and if necessary, representation in relation to any offences at both corporate and individual level, including in respect of extra-territorial jurisdiction to prosecute bribery committed abroad by persons ordinarily resident in the UK as well as UK nationals and UK corporate bodies.
Homicide
In the last 5 years alone Vincent has secured the acquittals in the following trials.
R v Szalus & Ors: A failed manslaughter case coupled to a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice alleged against a group of Polish co-workers blamed for their colleague’s death, where issues relating to medical causation could not sustain the principal charge. (Winchester Crown Court – March 2011)
R v Khamal Hanchard-Kerr: A murder trial in which Vincent secured the acquittal of Khamal, jointly charged with his ‘Rambo’ knife-wielding seventeen year old twin brother, convicted for his attack upon three older neighbours following the escalation of earlier street confrontations involving the twins. Three deep wounds were inflicted on each of the victims by his brother, with fatal consequences for one and near fatal for the other two, within the space of a minute as they all fought before the twins made their escape. (Birmingham Crown Court – March 2011)
R v Forsyth & Others; Successfully representing the central defendant in a nine-handed ‘Yardie’ gang murder in a case involving extensive vehicle satellite tracking evidence and a ‘cut-throat’ defence. (2010) – Nottingham Crown Court
R v Mohammed Khani & Others; Defending alleged gang leader of West London street gang ‘MDP' and his participation in a twenty-two handed revenge attack resulting in the murder of a student. Found not guilty. (2009) – Central Criminal Court.
R v Bell; Defended in a 'baby-shaking' allegation on an infant aged 6 months with numerous expert witnesses called on issues of causation and related medical topics. (2008) – Harrow Crown Court
R v Dana Ali; Defending an alleged participant in a Kurdish gang killing which took place at open air culture festival. Verdict –Not Guilty (2008) – Winchester Crown Court
R v Asif Mohammed; Defending the alleged accomplice to the daylight murder and robbery of a taxi-driver who was stabbed in the neck as he sat in his car. Verdict – Not guilty. (2008) – Reading Crown Court
R v Germaine Morris; Alleged gang participant in a six-handed South London revenge attack gang murder. One of the six to be found not guilty following a lengthy and complex cut-throat trial. (2008) – Central Criminal Court.
R v Lulzim Bici; Defending the alleged getaway driver and gang member of an Albanian parking-meter turf war leaving one dead and three wounded in a night-club fire fight. (2007) Found not guilty– Central Criminal Court.
Inquests and Tribunals
Vincent has advised and appeared at Coroner’s Inquests throughout his career. Most recently he was instructed in the Coroner’s Inquest in the fatal shooting of Barrister Mark Saunders, where he advised and represented ex Met Police Commander Ali Dizaei, (before Dizaei was imprisoned for unrelated matters). Dizaei was at risk of criticism for his role as ‘Gold Commander’ of the incident, and Vincent, having obtained independent ‘interested party’ status, thereafter provided written submissions to the Coroner on the scope of the Inquest which in due course rendered the ‘Gold’ command role unblemished.
International Terrorism
With a law degree that included studying Public International Law, Vincent has a keen interest in Middle Eastern and World affairs. He is a member of the Travellers Club, has visited the Occupied Territories in the Palestine, and has a particular interest in the resolution of the Northern Cyprus claim for independent state recognition. Vincent has appeared in two important terrorist trials:-
R v Jegatheeswaran & Others (Operation Osmium); Following a three month trial, Vincent secured the acquittal of an alleged Tamil Tiger said to have been responsible for shipping electronic and components for improvised explosive devices and military hardware to the LTTE controlled areas in Sri Lanka (2009) – Central Criminal Court
R v Ullah & Ors (Stansted Hi-Jacking); In February 2000, an Afghan airliner, carrying more than 150 passengers, was hijacked during an internal flight on 6 February and flown to Stansted Airport, near London. After four days of tense negotiations, all the hostages were finally released. Vincent was one of the first counsel instructed to represent one of the main defendants.
Asset Recovery
Since the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was enacted, Vincent has acted for a number of private clients and achieved effective resolution of complex and unjustified financial claims by Asset Recovery agencies. He has also advised Regulatory Bodies of their powers of recovery under the Act.
Regulatory Law
In 2008 Vincent advised the Financial Services Authority as a consultant to the Enforcement Division, advising upon their first major insider dealing ring investigation (Operation Saturn – presently awaiting trial at Southwark Crown Court), as well as building and steering a $27.5 million boiler room investigation which subsequently resulted in record sentences for three men (Tomas Wilmot and his sons, Christopher and Kevin, were subsequently sentenced to a combined total of 19 years for their part in a scam that defrauded an estimated 1,700 investors between 2003 and 2008.)
Vincent also advised on a complex and ongoing investigation into unauthorised FX trading by a major investment bank. First-hand experience of the FSA’s approach and policy towards the regulation and penalty regime for authorised persons accused of market abuse and regulatory infringement makes Vincent well placed to advise and represent those facing sanction at both corporate/ individual, wholesale/retail market level. His judgement, legal ability and experience have brought other regulatory bodies to seek his advice as to the scope and progress of investigations.
In 2011 he advised Cardiff City Council Trading Standards Authority regarding a potential fraud and breach of regulations arising from the endorsement by ex-Cardiff City FC Chairman, Peter Ridsdale, of an attempt to boost Cardiff City season ticket sales by suggesting the proceeds would be spent on the acquisition of new players at a time when the club was under a transfer embargo. (September 2011).
Early Career and Background
As a junior barrister Vincent has provided pro-bono advice for Law Centres across the City. He has been engaged part-time as a libel reader for The Sunday Telegraph and has written on a variety of legal topics for The Times, The Sunday Times and The Evening Standard. He has also appeared on BBC’s Newsnight. Vincent is also a senior advocacy trainer at Middle Temple, a voluntary role which he has enjoyed for many years.
