Rhys Meggy

Cloth Fair Chambers

Rhys Meggy is a barrister at QEB Hollis Whiteman specialising in corporate and financial crime, business regulation, professional discipline and general crime.

He both prosecutes and defends, often appearing alone in complex and serious cases as well as advising pre-charge. Much of his work involves allegations of criminality and/or regulatory impropriety in the course of business on the part of professional people and corporates. He has recently been involved in cases of bribery and corruption; tax evasion; insolvency offences; anticompetitive behaviour; serious fraud and false accounting; money laundering (both inside and outside the regulated sector); unauthorised activity in the regulated sector; health and safety offences; and environmental offences.

Rhys also has particular experience of considering the adequacy of preventative systems and controls and policies and procedures, both in the context of financial crime and health and safety offences. During 2015-2016, while maintaining his practice in court, he was seconded as counsel to the anti-financial crime department of a leading investment bank being subjected to regulatory scrutiny. He regularly advised on the efficacy and enhancement of systems and controls across the fields of anti-bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering, and the new corporate criminal offences of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion.

Prior to joining Chambers, Rhys worked at an offshore law firm in the British Virgin Islands.

Rhys has presented on a variety of topics relating to corporate and financial crime and financial services regulation, particularly with regard to corruption, the facilitation of tax evasion and money laundering.

Contributed to

1

Failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion—the offences

Practice notes

This Practice Note explains the two corporate criminal offences of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion created by sections 45 and 46 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 (CFA 2017). It covers the elements of both the UK and foreign corporate tax evasion offences, the available ‘reasonable procedures’ statutory defences and the penalties payable on conviction. It also draws on the publication ‘Tackling tax evasion: Government guidance for the corporate offence of failure to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion’. It also considers whether there is scope for further corporate liability for failure to prevent economic crime offences generally.

Corporate Crime