R v GG plc and others

David Pannick QC and Tom de la Mare acted for Goldshield Group Plc, one the corporate defendants in the alleged NHS generic medicine cartels.  They were instructed by Craig Shuttleworth of Jones Day.  All charges against both Goldshield and all of the other individual and corporate defendants were dismissed as bad in law or unarguable on the evidence as a result of the legal points David and Tom developed and deployed for Goldshield.  To achieve this result Goldshield, as the lead Defendant, had to intervene in the linked case of Norris and then bring interlocutory appeals in their criminal proceedings that went up to the House of Lords.  Notwithstanding the House of Lords ruling in Goldshield’s favour the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) sought to reformulate the indictment, requiring Goldshield to argue its points before Mr Justice Pitchford and then, on the SFO’s appeal, the Criminal Court of Appeal, which on 3 December refused the SFO leave to appeal.  The upshot is that the SFO’s most expensive ever prosecution (the SFO alone having spent in the region of £30million without even going to trial) has been thrown out, with the SFO liable to pay the many Defendants’ costs.  The Court of Appeal lifted reported restrictions.  Please click on the links to see the House of Lords judgment (R v GG PLC.doc (37 kb) ), and the earlier Criminal Court of Appeal judgment (GG v The Queen (Court of Appeal - Criminal Division).pdf (1862 kb) ), which were covered by the restrictions.