A Bankside client was charged, along with five others, with offences arising from an alleged phoenix VAT fraud over a number of years, contrary to s 72(8) VAT Act 1984. The trial judge became frustrated with the prosecution's failure to provide requested documents, and the prosecution was stayed as an abuse of process and the defendants discharged.

When the prosecution did finally supply the relevant documents they applied, exceptionally, to have the stay of prosecution lifted. The judge accepted the prosecution's arguments but he refused to lift the stay, as the defendants had been discharged.

As Leon Daniel of Bankside Law argues in his article, however, accepting that the prosecution can have a stay lifted in such circumstances will do nothing to encourage the prosecuting authorities to meet their statutory obligations. The full text of the article will appear here in due course.