Benjamin Myers QC and Nicola Daley successfully represent prosecution in landmark judgment by the Court of Appeal
April 29, 2020
In Barton & Booth v R, 29th April 2020, the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal has given judgment on the correct test for dishonesty as it applies to all criminal offences in English law, dismissing appeals against conviction. Benjamin Myers QC and Nicola Daley, both of Exchange Chambers appeared on behalf of the prosecution together with David Perry QC and Katherine Hardcastle of 6KBW College Hill.
This landmark judgment has been given by a five-judge Court presided over by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon. The judgement establishes the correct test to be applied where all offences of dishonesty are concerned in English law and it modifies the common law of precedent. It identifies also the proper construction of the common law offence of conspiracy to defraud.
The appeal arose out of the prosecution and conviction of David Barton, owner of the Barton Park nursing home in Southport. Benjamin Myers QC, Nicola Daley and Ray Smith of Exchange Chambers prosecuted the case at trial; a case described by the Court of Appeal in its ruling as ‘an exceptional case involving a high degree of exploitative criminality that was targeted at vulnerable elderly individuals.’ This financial abuse took place over a period of two decades.
The trial ran for 12 months at Liverpool Crown Court at the conclusion of which David Barton and his general manager, Rosemary Booth, were both convicted by the jury of multiple offences of conspiracy to defraud and in the case of David Barton, further offences of theft, fraud, false accounting and money laundering.
To read a copy of the judgment in full, click here.
