The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published an updated Media Protocol establishing guidance for handling requests for prosecution material used in open court. Developed in collaboration with policing bodies and media representatives, the protocol reflects changes in law, case practice, and media dynamics since its original introduction in 2005. Additionally, a new user guide has been released to support the communications teams of both the police and the CPS, following extensive public consultation across the criminal justice system.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that a businessman has been sentenced  for coronavirus (COVID-19) Bounce Back Loan fraud. Gerald Smith has been convicted of fraud and concealing criminal property or concealing the use of money. Smith submitted a false loan application, claiming that his business needed the funds, and secured a £50,000 loan through the government's system designed to support businesses during coronavirus. Instead of using the money for business purposes, Smith used it for personal use. Smith has been sentenced to 18 months in prison at Southwark Crown Court and has been ordered to pay an existing £22,000 costs order.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported the conviction Jonathan Chew who followed and harassed the government’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Chris Whitty, in St James’s Park on 27 June 2021. Chew was due to stand trial but changed his plea admitting to a public order offence of intending to cause the victim harassment, alarm and distress using threatening or abusive words or behaviour and to obstructing police at Westminster magistrates’ court. Chew has been sentenced to eight weeks’ imprisonment.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that Harman Banger and his wife Neena Kumari have been convicted for attempting to exploit a coronavirus (COVID-19) bounce back loan scheme. According to the CPS, Banger used knowledge from having Cabinet responsibility at Wolverhampton City Council to cheat the system. His wife submitted an application for a small business grant of £10,000 for Pizza Plus, a business they shared ownership of, on 24 April 2020 claiming that it had been operating since October 2019. An investigation by Wolverhampton Council’s counter-fraud team and West Midlands police found no records of electricity being supplied to the business address until 16 May 2020 and that the property had been boarded up and was in a state of disrepair showing that the business was not in fact operating as the pair had fraudulently claimed when applying for financial assistance. They were both found guilty on 17 December 2021 at Wolverhampton magistrates’ court of fraud by false representation and will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 14 January 2022.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that a married couple, Clint Canning and Eleise Wallace, have been convicted due to their involvement in a cold calling investment scam of elderly victims resulting in a total loss of over £2.7m. Canning was found guilty of fraud by false representation for running a binary options investments company, Base 2 Trade, which claimed to be involved in fixed odds betting on the trading direction of businesses, and Wallace was convicted of a money laundering related offence, as she received investors’ money directly into her personal bank accounts.

This Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that six men have been found guilty of running a large-scale money laundering operation involving funds in excess of £100m in cash through a road haulage company, Genesis 2014 (UK) Ltd. Marcus Hughes, the primary operator of Genesis 2014 (Ltd) UK, and Leon Woolley, a transport planner at the firm, were convicted of two counts of conspiracy to launder cash at Stoke Crown Court. Drivers Nicholas Fern and Damion Morgan, were convicted of a single count of conspiracy to launder cash over a period of months, while Liam Bailey, a transport planner at the firm, and Simon Davies, a business associate of Hughes, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to launder money. French authorities had found agreements between Hughes and another man, Craig Johnson, that coordinated the collection of large sums of cash at various places in the UK with the intention of transporting the cash to London where it could be transferred onwards and legitimised. According to the CPS, this information was then passed to the British authorities who stopped two Genesis vans driven by Fern and Morgan, both containing substantial bags of cash. Hughes was arrested later that day.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that Jack Finney, a drug dealer who was convicted and sentenced on 21 December 2021 for selling a deadly substance falsely marketed as a ‘weight loss’ drug, has been forced to pay back £23,000 made from the crime, which includes a quantity of Monero cryptocurrency that was sold off by the Food Standards Agency for £15,000. This is the first time a CPS case has resulted in conversion of Monero.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced that former church official, Martin James Sargeant, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court for an offence of fraud by abuse of his position. Sargeant was employed as an Operations Manager from June 2009 to 2019 within the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England, and his role involved assisting individual city churches as required and distributing funds. From 2009 and 2019, Sargeant defrauded the Diocese out of £5,211,009.22 in total, and the CPS and the Metropolitan police established that Sargeant used his position to divert money out of the charity. The CPS has said Sargeant transferred this money into his personal bank accounts or siphoned funds via cheque payments, debit card transactions or cash withdrawals.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported on ex-employee Rachel Simpson’s misuse of computer systems while working for them. Simpson was charged with and pled guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office and 29 counts of unauthorised access of a computer system. She was sentenced to six years imprisonment at Cardiff Crown Court on 5 May 2023. Chief Crown Prosecutor, Andrew Penhale, has said that staff are required to act with honesty and the CPS will not hesitate to prosecute employees involved in unlawful conduct. The CPS is taking action to make sure they learn from this case and prevent something similar from happening again.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that Amina Noor, who denied the offence of assisting a non-UK person to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) of a British citizen overseas, has been found guilty by a jury following a trial at the Old Bailey. CPS has said that an investigation by the Metropolitan Police commenced in 2018, after the victim informed a teacher she had suffered FGM as a young child. The investigation identified that Noor had taken the victim to Kenya years earlier, who was then subjected to FGM by a woman while in the country. CPS has said that this is the first time a person has been convicted of assisting in the commission of FGM offences committed abroad, contrary to section 3 of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. Noor will be sentenced at a later date.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that an ex-employee of the National Trust has been jailed after defrauding the Trust out of more than £1m. Roger Bryant was employed as a building surveyor when he committed the fraud. Bryant abused his position to approve 148 fictitious invoices from two companies connected to his sons, James and Scott Bryant, for non-existent work. Roger Bryant was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.  James Bryant was jailed for four years and Scott Bryant received an 18-month suspended sentence and 170 hours of unpaid work.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has reported that Richard Rufus, a former Premier League player, has been found guilty of fraud, money laundering and carrying out a regulated activity without authorisation at Southwark Crown Court after he defrauded friends, family and associates out of £15m. The CPS has said its prosecution and the City of London police’s investigation found that Rufus claimed he was a successful foreign exchange trader, which he used to convince victims to invest in his ‘low-risk’ scheme and promised returns of 60% annually. According to the CPS, Rufus used some of the £15m invested to pay back investors in a ‘pyramid-style scheme’ and used the rest to maintain a lifestyle of an elite professional footballer. The CPS has also said Rufus falsely claimed to have made multi-million-pound returns for a church and good returns for footballers or ex-footballers that he had invested funds for but could not identify due to confidentiality reasons.