Fiona Jackson

Lecture Topics

“She is meticulous, forensic in her approach and can be tough when she needs to be.” Legal 500 2024

"Very good, she's extremely bright and on the ball."
"Extremely well organised and knowledgeable, she has an excellent reputation." Chambers and Partners 2024

“Fiona is a polished and thoughtful advocate who prepares her cases meticulously. As an advocate, on her feet she is thorough, but not adverse to moments of light-heartedness. She is definitely a silk of the near future.” Legal 500 2023

"Fiona is hugely likeable and a really strong operator with first-rate POCA knowledge."
"She is meticulous in her preparation and supremely well informed." Chambers and Partners 2023

“A superb practitioner in the field of POCA who is very approachable and shows the highest levels of organisation.” “She has a very good and effective advocacy style which judges like.” Chambers and Partners 2022

“A well-prepared and very knowledgeable senior junior who will surely take silk in the next few years.” Legal 500 2022

"She always has an excellent understanding of the shape of a case. Even when you're dealing with global complex litigation with a myriad of strands, she's got a first-class ability to deal with it." "She's a tenacious advocate with a deep knowledge of POCA." Chambers and Partners 2021

“Fiona is truly an expert in the world of POCA and asset forfeiture. A pragmatic barrister with an encyclopaedic mind. One of my go-to counsel for complex confiscation matters.” Legal 500 2021

• Delivering lectures and interactive training as part of a four-day regional workshop in Belgrade for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the world’s largest regional security organisation.  Involving prosecutor and financial investigator delegates from five countries in South-Eastern Europe, Fiona’s lectures focused on international legal frameworks and mechanisms for asset recovery including UWOs, criminal and non-conviction based confiscation measures, effective use of MLA requests and mitigating the risk of failure (December 2019). 

• Delivering lectures and practical training for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in a four-day regional workshop in Almaty, Kazakhstan on International Cooperation in Asset Recovery for delegates from Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan,Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on the international financial investigation landscape and techniques for asset recovery, legal frameworks, useful tools, networks and platforms, and drafting mutual legal assistance requests for international cooperation (September 2019);

• Part of a team developing a handbook on Tools and Best Practice for International Asset Recovery Co-operation for the Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative of Western Balkan States (RAI) and delivering 3-day interactive workshops in Skopje, North Macedonia and Tirana, Albania to judges, prosecutors & investigators from 8 Balkan countries on asset seizure measures, international mutual legal assistance and international cooperation aiming to enhance international co-operation responses in all phases of the asset recovery process in cases in the Western Balkans region and beyond, explain available recovery tools, exchange best practice and expertise in fighting corruption, provide an integrated approach and inspire confidence in rule of law (June and October 2019);

• Lecturing in Tortola for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on Cash detention and forfeiture in the British Virgin Islands to prosecutors and officers of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (March 2019);

• Delivering a two-day workshop in Tbilisi for the Council of Europe to judges, prosecutors, police officers and financial investigators on criminal confiscation, non-conviction based forfeiture including civil recovery and Unexplained Wealth Orders, restraint and freezing, and maximising success in mutual legal assistance for international asset recovery as part of the CoE’s Partnership for Good Governance: Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in Georgia initiative (November 2018);

• Delivering lectures and practical training as part of a three-day workshop in Tashkent on Regional Mutual Legal Assistance for the National Crime Agency and the British Embassy in Tashkent to delegates from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, including on international legislative civil and criminal asset recovery frameworks, worldwide mutual legal assistance capabilities, non-conviction based forfeiture, Unexplained Wealth Orders and the detail required in MLA requests (November 2018);

• Tracing, restraining and confiscating, or freezing and recovering overseas assets and repatriating their value to the UK through mutual assistance and mutual legal assistance for the City of London Police and Metropolitan Police at their ACE Team Leaders’ Conference at the City of London’s Guildhall (February 2018);

• Council of Europe Roundtable on Co-operation Activities against Economic Crime: tools, impact and lessons learnt as an expert contributor for two-day workshop in Strasbourg (February 2018);

• Mutual Legal Assistance in British-Polish Asset Recovery for the Warsaw Bar Association and Polish Bar Association, international embassies’ staff and other legal professionals in Warsaw (May 2017);

• Three lectures in Sofia as part of a two-day workshop on International standards and implementation of asset recovery legislation for the Council of Europe and Bulgarian asset recovery specialists (April 2016);

• The Serious Crime Act 2015 and its impact on the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to the Proceeds of Crime Lawyers’ Association (October 2015);

• Leading the way in co-operative relations on anti-corruption, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering: Oman and UK to the Omani Public Prosecution Office in Muscat for the British Council (March 2015)

• The new Directive on the freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime in the European Union for the European Criminal Justice Observatory (February 2015);

• Restraint considerations at the National Crime Agency's Inter-Agency POCA Day, London (February 2014).

Appointments

• Fiona is a committee member of the Proceeds of Crime Lawyers’ Association; is a Vice-President of the Association of Women Barristers, having been its Chairwoman in 2011; and is a member of the South Eastern Circuit Bar Mess Committee, where she was the elected Recorder of the Circuit (2006-2007) and Circuit Junior (2003).

• For 12 years she was an elected member of the Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association Committee, through which roles she became the Chairwoman of the 2009 Bar Conference and was a member of the Organising Committee of the World Bars Conference 2012 held in London.  

• Thereafter until the end of 2019 she was a co-opted member of the Bar Council, chairing its Bar Representation Committee, the Bar Nursery Committee and the Retention Panel, and she was Vice-Chair of its Equality & Diversity Committee. 

• Fiona is also a Bencher of Inner Temple and Master of Outreach for the Inn. She is a keen supporter of diversity and social mobility initiatives, including numerous mentoring roles and supporting the work of the Inspiring the Future platform.

Notable Cases

"...Very clever, user-friendly, accessible..." 

Chambers and Partners 2015

• R v S (2016-2023) - Instructed by CPS (as junior counsel) to advise and represent in criminal restraint, mutual recognition and costs proceedings arising from an alleged $billion multi-jurisdictional dividend tax trading fraud.

• Re GFI (2021-2023) - Instructed by the SFO to conduct confiscation proceedings following convictions for an investment fraud

• Re X (2023) - Instructed by a Jersey Trust to advise in respect to Guidance issued by the Jersey Financial Services Commission on recent amendments to Jersey Proceeds of Crime Law.

• NCA v Y (2023) - Advising the NCA in respect to Property Freezing Order (“PFO”) application.

• FCA v N (2021-2023) - Instructed to seek complex without notice PACE warrants, search & seizure warrants and restraint orders in very high value investigation involving suspected insider trading by multiple suspects. Representing the FCA in opposing application to discharge Restraint Order.

• DPP v P (2021-2022) - Instructed for CPS in property freezing order application and civil recovery proceedings in High Court under POCA 2002. fraud. Case involved novel issue of cryptocurrency account freezing in civil recovery proceedings. Civil Recovery Order obtained.

• R v Black, Diaz, Wilson and others (2015-2020) - Instructed (as led junior) by the SFO as part of the prosecution team for a five-month trial of a multi-million pound fraudulent scheme to install solar panels which defrauded hundreds of victims including elderly, retired and vulnerable people.  Six defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud by false representation in 2018, Serious Crime Prevention Orders were imposed, and confiscation orders have been made with compensation orders in favour of nearly 800 victims.

• R v K (2017-2018) - Instructed to represent a defendant (convicted of Housing Act and fire safety offences) for confiscation proceedings and sentence. As a result, the Borough Council’s initial application for a criminal lifestyle confiscation order of over £1.5 million was reduced to a particular criminal conduct confiscation order of just under £30,000.

• Libyan Investment Authority v. Societe Generale SA (2017) Instructed (as junior counsel) to advise and represent a witness in a role in connection with a $2.1 billion claim in relation to a series of disputed trades, including derivatives, allegedly amounting to bribes entered into as part of a fraudulent and corrupt scheme between 2007 and 2009, before Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.

• Saleh v SFO (2016-2018) - Instructed (as led junior) by the SFO in a property freezing order appeal ([2017] EWCA Civ 18), where the Court of Appeal found that an order made in Canada was not an order in rem whose effect was such as to preclude the SFO from contending that the money is or was recoverable property in England & Wales. In March 2018, the SFO successfully applied for a civil recovery order in the sum of £4.4million: the High Court found that the cash held in a London bank account for the benefit of the defendant was the proceeds of criminal conduct, being the benefit that she and other individuals linked to the government of Chad were paid as corrupt financial inducements in return for the award of a contract to exploit oil reserves in Chad ([2018] EWHC 1012 (QB)).

• DPP v Repaci (2016-2018) Obtaining for CPS its first registration of an external order and making of a civil recovery order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (External Requests and Orders) Order 2005, arising out of a request from the Republic of Italy for property freezing and recovery of assets in this jurisdiction.

• R v A & A (2015-2018) Instructed (as led junior) in the Crown Court and Court of Appeal ([2016] EWCA Crim 96) by the CPS on behalf of the State of Kuwait to seek and maintain restraint in this jurisdiction of assets belonging to Kuwaiti nationals being investigated in Kuwait for alleged criminal conduct including money laundering.

• R v Choudhury (2014-2019) Instructed (as led junior) by the CPS to prosecute multi-million pound confiscation proceedings involving a trustee in bankruptcy and significant assets in foreign jurisdictions including Bangladesh.

• R v Evans and Cairns (2009-2019) Instructed (as led junior) by the RCPO/CPS in complex restraint and confiscation proceedings involving a highly-sophisticated money laundering operation filtering criminal proceeds of millions of pounds through Hong Kong via Gibraltar and through a solicitor’s account in the UK, with laundering of two separate MTIC frauds through Gibraltar to the UK utilising shell companies to deal in property.

• R v Fox & Others (2014-2015) Instructed by the Competitions & Markets Authority to prosecute confiscation proceedings arising out of an infamous pyramid selling scheme.

• R v Ao (2013-2015) Instructed by CPS (as led junior), on behalf of the Special Administrative Region of Macau, to prosecute an application to register and enforce a multi-million pound external confiscation order made against a corrupt public official and appoint an enforcement receiver.

• R v W; R v X; R v Y; R v 2 (2010-2019) Examples of instructions from the CPS, on behalf of the Dutch, US, Italian and Cypriot Governments, to seek urgent ex parte restraint orders in the Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (External Requests and Orders) Order 2005 to prevent dissipation of multi-million pound assets from this jurisdiction. The cases concerned allegations of money laundering of the proceeds of an extortion racket; allegations of money laundering of the proceeds of a long-running international conspiracy to illegally export stolen Italian archaeological artefacts and a linked conspiracy to receive stolen goods; an alleged conspiracy to smuggle drugs in to the USA, defraud and money launder and alleged offences in Cyprus of bribery, corruption, cheating and money laundering.

• R v Ahmed (2014) Leading Counsel in confiscation proceedings for multi-million pound confiscation order in a case of money laundering investigated by the NCA.

• R v Potts (2014) Instructed by the SFO to advise and represent in the enforcement of a confiscation order in a long-running conspiracy to defraud.

• ABC v DPP (2014) Advising and representing the CPS (led junior) in Judicial review concerning the ability to challenge the Crown's alleged failure to restrain funds in an ongoing investigation [2014] EWHC 3286 Admin].

• R v Harris (2013-2014): Instructed (as led junior) to defend in multi-million pound long firm fraud involving twelve defendants, prosecuted by BIS.

• R v Padda (2013-2014) [2013] EWCA Crim 2330 Instructed to seek increase of a defendant's confiscation order under section 22 of POCA 2002 by way of an application to reconsider the available amount, subsequently upheld in the Court of Appeal.

• Operation Ventford (2011-2014) Instructed (as led junior) to prosecute multi-million pound confiscation proceedings against five defendants following their convictions in an organised money laundering enterprise involving fraud, identity thefts and international property.

• R v Yilmaz (2013-2014) Advising on successful recoverability of assets including from Turkey by a convicted drug trafficker.

• R v Harrison (2013) Advising on judicial review of a decision to prosecute and linked criminal proceedings for cheating the public revenue.

• R v Maher (2013) Instructed to construe recoverability and pursue successful confiscation of accrued pension of "Fast Eddie", defendant who fled the UK to the USA some 20 years ago after committing a £1.1m bank robbery.

• R v Yearsley (2013-2014) Instructed (as led junior) in multi-million pound confiscation proceedings against convicted drug trafficker.

• R v Pouladian-Kari (2012-2013) [2013 EWCA Crim 158] Instructed (as led junior) to represent an Iranian businessman in an appeal against conviction for breaching export restrictions to Iran, and linked confiscation and condemnation proceedings. The criminal appeal was successful: the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction on the basis of a real possibility of unconscious bias on the part of a juror who had asked the Judge for guidance as to whether he should remain on the jury, and the Judge’s decision not to discharge the jury as a result. The Lord Chief Justice refused the Crown's application for a re-trial.

• Stanford International Bank Ltd v Serious Fraud Office (2012) Instructed by the SFO, on behalf of the US Department of Justice, as part of the legal team to advise on the position of unsecured creditor victims in concurrent civil and criminal proceedings in respect of the insolvency of the Bank.

• R v Rezvi (2012) and R v McNay (2012-2013) Instructed on behalf of defendants to seek DTA 1994 Certificate of Inadequacy in the High Court (McNay) and then return to Crown Court for consequent reductions in confiscation orders (both cases; CJA 1988 order in the case of Rezvi).

• R v Smith (2011-2013) Instructed (as led junior) by the Attorney General of the Turks & Caicos Islands to obtain and enforce a confiscation order against one of the Caribbean’s biggest ever fraudsters, convicted of defrauding over 6000 victims in a $220m Ponzi scheme.

• Serious Fraud Office v King ([2009] 1 WLR 718; [2008] 1 WLR 2634) Instructed (as led junior) for the SFO in the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords appeal in a case concerning a Letter of Request by a foreign prosecutor in connection with criminal investigations/proceedings. The House of Lords held that the Crown Court’s jurisdiction to make a restraint and disclosure order following a request by a foreign prosecutor under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (External Requests and Orders) Order (SI 2005 No 3181) was restricted to property located within England and Wales. The case returned to the Crown Court in 2010-2013 for further litigation, and Mr. King then pleaded guilty in South Africa to income tax offences and accepted multi-million Rand confiscation.

• R v Sophocleous and Collins (2010-2012) Instructed (as led junior) by CPS in confiscation proceedings arising from cheating the public revenue of over £15 million in a criminal enterprise and where one defendant was an accountant.

• Hill v Greater Manchester Police (2010) Instructed by the GMP and successfully opposing a second Crown Court appeal against an order forfeiting a high-value cheque seized at a bank, where the case involved a national bank and an appellant who historically opened an account in a false identity but to whom the funds had been returned by an independent adjudicator. This highly unusual case required careful interpretation of the bank’s statutory duties and discretion to act in conflict with the appellant’s purported instructions, together with analysis of the bank’s money laundering reporting obligations and actions in conjunction with SOCA’s consents to transact.

• R v Hussain and others (2007-2011) Prosecuting (as led junior) multi-handed trial, appeal and confiscation of international steroids and counterfeit drugs enterprise. Two defendants’ appeals against conviction on part of the indictment in relation to controlled drugs clarified the law, namely that a person in possession of controlled drugs who intended to supply them outside the jurisdiction did not commit an offence (the Judge did not give the jury a direction to consider this as an option on the facts): [2010] 2 Cr App R. 11

• R v Halai, Haywood, Patino and others (2006-2009) Prosecuting (as led junior) multi-handed trial, confiscation and appeals of multi-million pound global medicines counterfeiting ring. Two separate appeals led to reported decisions of principle: the first, R v Haywood and others ([2009] 2 Cr App R (S) 62) reaffirmed sentencing principles for significant quantities of counterfeit drugs; the second, R v Patel and another (The Times, 19th November 2009), clarified that where medicinal products were intended for sale to end users outside the European Community, Sch. 3(1) of the Medicines for Human Use (Marketing Authorisations Etc.) Regulations (SI 1994 No 3144) had no application.

• De La Rue International Ltd v Loch Defending (as led junior) civil claim against former employee involving over half a million pounds.

• ARA v Djavaheri and others Acting for ARA in claim of over £600,000 in civil recovery proceedings.

• ARA v Devereaux and Devereaux Acting for ARA in claim of nearly £100,000 in civil recovery proceedings.

• ARA v Henry Defending civil recovery claim following linked criminal proceedings.

• R v Gill Defending substantial confiscation proceedings relating to conspiracy to defraud a building society.

• R v Johnson and others Prosecuting (as led junior) drugs and money laundering conspiracy.

• R v Keenan and others Prosecuting (as led junior) multi-handed trial and confiscation of counterfeit Viagra/Kamagra conspiracy.

• R v Green and others Prosecuting (as led junior) multi-handed global money laundering conspiracy.

• R v Birks and others Defending significant application for confiscation following trial on corruption charges (aka “Donnygate”).

• Re Pujalte and others Acting for National Crime Squad in application to forfeit almost half a million pounds in cash.

• R v Hughes, Anderson and others Acting for Customs in High Court and Court of Appeal on powers of management receivers to sell assets to pay costs.