R v Gavin Inns
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Singh |
| Judgment Date | 04 May 2018 |
| Neutral Citation | [2018] EWCA Crim 1081 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
| Docket Number | No: 201700174/B4 & 201701894/B4 |
| Date | 04 May 2018 |
[2018] EWCA Crim 1081
Lord Justice Singh
Mrs Justice Lang DBE
THE RECORDER OF CARDIFF
HER HONOUR JUDGE Rees QC
(Sitting as a Judge of the CACD)
No: 201700174/B4 & 201701894/B4
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London, WC2A 2LL
Mr T Wainwright appeared on behalf of Gavin Inns
Mr C Witcher appeared on behalf of Emma Inns
Ms H Guest appeared on behalf of the Crown
JUDGMENT (Approved)
These are two appeals against conviction brought with the permission of the single judge. In the case of Gavin Inns the single judge refused permission to appeal on the first ground. That ground has not been renewed before this court. We are grateful for the assistance of all counsel both for their written arguments and their oral submissions at this hearing. We heard initially from Mr Wainwright on behalf of Gavin Inns, although as will become apparent much of the appeal concerns complaints relating to the evidence at trial of the other appellant, Emma Inns. Those submissions were adopted by Mr Witcher on behalf of Emma Inns. We are also grateful to Ms Guest who has assisted us with submissions on behalf of the Crown.
On 12 December 2016 at the Crown Court at Canterbury, Gavin Inns was convicted unanimously of two counts of false accounting (counts 2 and 3 on the indictment) and one count of perverting the course of public justice (count 6 on the indictment). The other appellant, Emma Inns was convicted unanimously of three counts of false accounting (counts 1, 2 and 3), one count of cheating the public revenue (count 4) and one count of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT, contrary to section 72 of the Value Added Tax Act 1984 (the subject of count 5).
On 16 December 2016 they were sentenced as follows. Gavin Inns was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment on count 2 suspended for two years. On count 3 there was a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment suspended for two years. On count 6, which was consecutive to count 3, there was a sentence of six months' imprisonment suspended for two years. There was a requirement to abide by a curfew which was attached for a period of six months to that suspended sentence order. Emma Inns was sentenced to six months on count 1, 12 months on count 2 and 18 months on count 3, all of those sentences being concurrent. She was sentenced to 12 months on count 4 to be consecutive to count 5. On count 5 she was sentenced to 18 months. That made a total of 30 months' imprisonment. She was disqualified from acting as a director for a period of 10 years pursuant to section 2 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. Emma Inns was acquitted by the jury on count 7 which had concerned being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent payment of tax credits.
The facts of the case can be summarised as follows for present purposes. The appellants are a married couple. Emma Inns' parents are Barry and Kathleen Graham. They are divorced and Kathleen is now known as Kathleen Lester and sometimes known in the case as “Lady” Lester.
The case, according to the prosecution, involved the falsification of a series of documents in order to obtain a large sum of money from building societies and from the tax payer. Emma Inns, said the prosecution, took the lead. Her husband Gavin Inns was jointly charged on counts 2 and 3 and was said to be responsible for wiping two computer hard drives which may have contained information relevant to the case. That was the subject of count 6 on the indictment.
At the trial there was no dispute that a series of frauds had been committed and that the appellants had benefited. The appellants, who were both of previous good character, argued that at the time of their involvement they honestly believed that anything they signed, contained or would contain honest and truthful information. Further, they identified Emma Inns' father and a woman called Eloise Fennel, who was said to be Emma Inns' God mother, as those responsible for having completed the various forms and false invoices. In relation to count 6, Gavin Inns admitted wiping the two laptops but said that he did so for innocent reasons, probably because they had a virus.
At the trial Barry Graham gave evidence that at the time he was estranged from his former wife and said that his daughter had cheated him of a tax refund in excess of £7,000 from HMRC. He denied involvement in any of the applications and said that he had never met or heard of an Eloise Fennel or a company called Pencobben Fennel which featured in a number of the counts.
In relation to Eloise Fennel enquiries had proved fruitless, according to the prosecution. There was no trace of her. She had never voted, never paid any taxes and there was no record of her existence or business activities with the authorities. Indeed the only match for an “Eloise” was found to be an image of the appellant's dog which Gavin Inns accepted was called Eloise. In any event, it was the prosecution case that Eloise Fennel was a fictitious character.
We turn briefly, as necessary, to the facts underlying each of the counts on the indictment. Counts 1 to 3 involved mortgage frauds committed in 2005 in respect of two separate properties. The appellants and Mrs Lester made applications in which grossly inflated income details were provided for the appellants. Each application was signed by the appellants and Mrs Lester. Counts 1 and 2 concerned a property in Newquay, Cornwall, 62 Pentire Avenue, whereby applications were made for a remortgage (£250,000) and additional lending (£200,000). Count 3 covered an application for £500,000 on a property in Truro at 7 Madeira Walk called “Sealap”. This application was made during the currency of the mortgage pertaining to the Newquay address and included reference to a company, Pencobben Fennel, said to be the appellants' accountant. Moreover it also included a handwritten note “I am an accountant” and a statement which read that there were no other outstanding mortgages. According to the prosecution, Pencobben Fennel was run by the appellants, a fact accepted by Emma Inns. However there was also a suggestion that it was run by Eloise Fennel and her husband Pencobben. It was not disputed at the trial that the offending amounted to false accounting. It was contended by Emma Inns that her father had given her blank forms to sign which she had then posted back to him in an envelope which he had provided. She identified her father and Eloise Fennel as having been responsible for arranging everything.
We turn briefly to count 4. Between 2005 and 2012 whilst Gavin Inns was employed with Cornwall County Council, Emma Inns submitted false income tax self-assessment forms (and false invoices) on his behalf. Declared self-employment losses of his were set against the PAYE tax he had paid in his employment. The amount cheated was a sum in excess of £18,000.
We turn to count 5. Pencobben Fennel was registered by Emma Inns for VAT purposes in 2008. By 2013 it had secured repayments to the tune of £77,000. During the relevant period Emma submitted VAT returns which contained false information. False invoices were provided in support. The repayments were paid into the business account of Pencobben Fennel of which Emma Inns was the sole signatory and shortly after transferred out into accounts controlled by her.
Finally we turn to the allegation under count 6. On 4 February 2013 a Peta Andrew, who was a VAT officer, paid Emma Inns a visit. Up to that date Pencobben Fennel had made no VAT payments. The officer asked to see a number of documents but none were supplied on the day of the visit. On 7 February 2013 Emma Inns supplied Peta Andrew with the requested documentation but it was accepted that this included falsified invoices.
On the weekend of 22 to 25 February 2013, Gavin Inns was witnessed by a colleague Gemma Snell taking from work a dongle which was an Encase software licensing key, which supported the use of Encase, and a tableau writer-blocker. At the relevant time Gavin Inns' role at Cornwall County Council involved the examination of computers on behalf of the police to check to see whether they contained indecent images. He was conversant with the system known as “Encase” which was a tool used to detect and locate material which a user might think had been successfully deleted from their computer or device and he was trained to “Encase Advanced Level”. He had expertise to wipe data from a computer and then to check whether any traces of the data remained.
Ms Snell's agreed evidence at the trial was that she had asked Gavin Inns which computer he would be using that had Encase installed upon it and that Gavin Inns did not answer that question directly. In his evidence Gavin Inns said that it was pure coincidence that the two Dell computers seized from his home address had been wiped on 24/25 February 2013.
We turn to summarise the grounds of appeal which are advanced. On behalf of Gavin Inns, Mr Wainwright advances the following grounds of appeal by reference to their original numbering.
Ground 2
It is submitted that the Recorder misdirected the jury as to the elements of the offence alleged under count 6 and/or the requisite standard of proof which applied. The jury were directed in the relevant part of the summing-up, which is at page 7D:
“If you are sure that one or both laptop hard drives might have contained material relevant to this investigation and that Gavin Inns wiped those hard...
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