(Southwark Crown Court) The case was a prosecution for serious fraud. In civil proceedings, despite evidence to suggest a powerful case for dishonesty, a High Court judge had concluded that the claimant had failed to establish that the defendant, Baxendale-Walker, was acting dishonestly, or intentionally ‘driving what he knew to be a dishonest transaction’.
Held: There was a concern about the effect of conflicting decisions of the High Court and a crminal court. The prosecution should be stayed on the grounds that it was ‘against the public interest that the criminal case should proceed . . in that the necessary effect of such a proceeding would be to re-litigate the issue with a view to achieving a result on the facts inconsistent with the findings of fact already made in a final judgment of the High Court’.
Judges:
Judge Wadsworth QC
Citations:
Unreported, 27 June 2002
Citing:
Applied – Smith v Linskills CA 1996
The claimant, a convicted burglar took proceedings against his former solicitors. He alleged that the negligence of the solicitor caused his wrongful conviction.
Held: The case was dismissed. The claimant was seeking to re-litigate issues . .
Cited by:
Cited – Levey, Regina v CACD 27-Jul-2006
The defendant appealed against his conviction of manslaughter of his baby son. He said that a family court had previously investigated the same allegations and had explicitly found itself unable to say which of himself and the mother were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice
Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.244669