The Supreme Court today allowed the appeal of Tom Hayes, quashing his 2015 conviction for conspiracy to defraud in connection with the manipulation of LIBOR submissions. Adrian Darbishire KC and Tom Doble of QEB Hollis Whiteman were instructed on behalf of Mr Hayes in one of the most significant criminal appeals of recent years.
Mr Hayes, a former derivatives trader, was convicted in 2015 of conspiring to manipulate LIBOR submissions. The Supreme Court agreed with the submission that the directions given at his trial were “legally inaccurate and unfair”, a proposition which had been consistently “rebuffed” by the Court of Appeal over the last ten years. As the Court observed at the outset of the judgment: “The history of these two cases raises concerns about the effectiveness of the criminal appeal system in England and Wales in confronting legal error”. The judgment also raises serious questions about the safety of the remaining LIBOR/EURIBOR convictions.
At the point Mr Darbishire and Mr Doble were instructed by Karen Todner, the Criminal Cases Review Commission had provisionally decided not to refer Mr Hayes’ conviction to the Court of Appeal. Following their instruction that decision was changed and the case referred to the Court of Appeal. That appeal took place in 2024. The ground upon which Mr Hayes’ conviction was allowed today by the Supreme Court was rejected by the Court of Appeal, on the basis that it was devoid of merit.
The case has been covered in National Press:
Adrian Darbishire KC
Tom Doble