Mark Sutherland Williams is a proceeds of crime and asset recovery law specialist. He is the co-author of one of the leading practitioner texts on asset forfeiture, "Millington and Sutherland Williams on The Proceeds of Crime", (third edition, Oxford University Press, 2010).

He regularly appears in high profile cases relating to all aspects of the law of civil recovery and confiscation, and was junior counsel in the House of Lords cases of Capewell (2007), Briggs-Price (2009) and Islam (2009). He is included in Chambers 2010 as a leading junior in corporate fraud. His case load varies from petitions to the Supreme Court to appearances before first-tier Tribunals.

Mark is often invited to speak at asset recovery conferences and recent engagements include having been a key note speaker at the Eastern Caribbean Judicial Education Institute's 'Confiscation and Money Laundering Symposium' at Rodney Bay, St Lucia.

He maintains a keen interest in this area of the law both through writing academic articles and his involvement with the Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association, of which he was a founding member, and currently holds the position of Treasurer. He is the Head of 3PB's Asset Forfeiture Group and a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel.

He is a keen runner and has completed both the New York and Paris marathons.

Background

In 1999 Mark was instructed as part of the Treasury team on the BSE Inquiry and was responsible for collating evidence and drafting the witness statements of Baroness Thatcher, the Rt. Hon. John Major, and the Rt. Hon. Michael Heseltine.

In 2003 he became the first Counsel to be instructed by the Director of the Assets Recovery Agency to obtain a High Court Interim Receivership Order and the first Counsel to be instructed by the (then) Commissioners of HM Customs and Excise to obtain a Crown Court Restraint Order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. In 2006 he became the first Counsel to be instructed by the Assets Recovery Agency to obtain a Property Freezing Order and the first Counsel to be instructed to obtain an external restraint order under SOCPA.

Mark has also been junior counsel in a number of high profile drug importation and conspiracy cases, including Operation Stealer ('King Coke', 1996-2008) and Operation Extend ('The Milkman', 1999-2008); and also has significant experience in money laundering and carousel (MTIC) fraud matters.

Reported cases

R v Price [2009] CA, LTL 14/12/2009, serving the sentence for the substantive offence and the imposition of a default term in relation to confiscation order did not offend against the principle of totality in sentencing. MSW leading Charlotte Hadfield.

R v Islam [2009] UKHL 30; 3 WLR 1; Times, June 12, 2009. House of Lords. First junior. Goods of an illegal nature obtained by a defendant were not to be treated as having no value when calculating a defendant's benefit in confiscation proceedings.

R v Briggs-Price [2009] UKHL 19; 2 WLR 1101; (2009) HRLR 21; Times, April 30, 2009. House of Lords. Although art.6(2) of the ECHR did not apply to confiscation proceedings, the presumption of innocence did. Junior counsel.

Attorney General v McMillan-Smith [2009] EWCA Crim 732; LTL 9/4/2009. Court of Appeal. Junior. Defendant and the burden of proof in confiscation proceedings.

R v Wright (2008) CA (Crim Div) LTL 18/12/2008 Led by Michael Parroy QC. A 10-year financial reporting order was upheld, as the judge had correctly directed himself as to the correct criteria for imposing a financial reporting order.

Re B [2008] EWHC 3217 (Admin); LTL 9/1/2009 An application for a certificate of inadequacy was refused where the matters that led to the assets being allegedly irrecoverable, could not, in the circumstances, be classed as a post-confiscation order event.

R v Sivaraman; [2008] WLR (D) 256. Leading counsel. There was no rule of law to the effect that, for the purposes of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the amount of the benefit to each of the co-conspirators to a fraud must be taken as the whole amount of the loss attributable to the fraud.

R v Islam [2008] EWCA Crim 1740, LTL 1/8/2008, the wholesale value of illegal drugs when calculating the value of the benefit to the offender from his criminal conduct. Leading counsel.

T v RCPO and BD [2007] (CA): [2008] 2 WLR 82: (2007) UKHRR 1079: (2008) QB 476, Upholding the court's discretion to enforce a confiscation order, following a breach of Article 7(1) ECHR.

RCPO v B-P and O'Reilly [2007] EWCA Civ 568, [2007] LS Gazette, June 28, 32, LTL 14/6/07 The release of restrained funds to meet legal expenses post-conviction.

Capewell v Revenue and Customs Commissioners and another [2007] 2 All ER 370 ; [2007] 1 WLR 386; 01/02/2007 Times Law Reports (House of Lords, CPR 69 and receivers remuneration); [2005] 1 All ER 900; 15/12/2004 Times Law Reports

Director of the Assets Recovery Agency v Ashton [2006] All ER (D) 477 (Mar) (Civil recovery)

Singh v Assets Recovery Agency [2005] 1 WLR 3747; [2005] All ER (D) 255 (May); 31/05/2005 Times Law Reports; (quashed confiscation order made without jurisdiction - exception cannot apply to void order)

In re S (Restraint order) CA [2004] [2005] 1 WLR 1338; 08/10/2004 Times Law Reports (Restraint order cannot be varied to fund legal fees in relation to order)

Recent publications

“Millington and Sutherland Williams on The Proceeds of Crime” (3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2010). The law and practice of restraint, confiscation, condemnation and forfeiture. Co-author with Trevor Millington OBE, 2007

'Financial Reporting Orders and the ECHR' Criminal Bar Quarterly, May 2009, co-written with James Chegwidden.

"Whose car is it anyway?" the restoration of vehicles in condemnation proceedings. April 2009, New Law Journal. Co-written with 3PB AFG member Caroline Stone.

"Be that as it May: R v Sivaraman and the Court of Appeal's approach to benefit in confiscation orders" co-written with James Chegwidden. January 2009, Proceeds of Crime Review.

"Recovery and Seizure of Cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002" by Mark Sutherland Williams and Katherine Anderson; Justice of the Peace (volume 171, number 29).