Alex Mullen of QEB Hollis Whiteman acted for the major bank, successfully applying for release of gold bars seized from organised criminal scammers.
In 2023 organised and sophisticated criminal scammers successfully persuaded an elderly gentleman to purchase a number of gold bars of significant value from a jeweller in Leicester. Upon purchase, he was directed to hand the bars to a courier.
Thanks to the quick thinking of a taxi driver, police were alerted to the circumstances of the fraud, arresting the courier, a 'mule' for the scammers. In so doing they seized the gold bars.
The bank later refunded the elderly scam victim of the funds stolen from him, both those used to fund the purchase of the bars but also further money paid by alternative methods.
Leicestershire Police later sought to forfeit the gold bars, which had increased significantly in value.
The bank sought to intervene in the forfeiture proceedings, instructing Alex to make a claim pursuant to s.303V of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for release of the gold bars to the bank.
Alex made the application on the basis that the bank had, in indemnifying the victim of the scam, become the owners of the gold. Any ownership difficulty was 'saved', Alex argued, by the principle of equitable subrogation and the law of unjust enrichment following Bank of Cyprus v Menelaou [2015] UKSC 66, even in spite of any express agreement between the bank and the victim allowing the bank to step into the victim's shoes for such purposes.
The Court agreed with Alex's submissions and granted the application in full, ordering release of the gold bars to the bank.
Alex Mullen