Buckingham Palace Bribery & Corruption Case - Acquitted

Case study summary

Our client was designer of the heating systems of the Royal Palaces. He was accused of bribing a Palace manager with an experimental domestic boiler. In fact, the boiler hadn't been paid for simply because it did not work. We fought and won the trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Case study

Our client was an 80 year old Lancashire man. He was a leading designer of high-efficiency boilers, and had redesigned all the heating systems of the Royal Palaces. He was accused with others of bribing the Deputy Property Manager of the Royal Palaces to obtain the contracts.

He was the only defendant found not guilty.

This case was of course fascinating, but it demanded a great deal of work and imagination to win. Our client had to wait two years for his trial date at Southwark Crown Court. Supporting him and keeping his confidence high during this period so late in his life was paramount.

He accepted that he had provided the Palace Property Manager a small experimental boiler prototype for his home, but that it hadn't worked properly and so he did not charge him. In all the circumstances, we argued it could never be considered a bribe.

We proactively presented our client's character and a 55 year unblemished record of contributing in his industry at the highest level. We even presented evidence of his loyalty to the Royal Family and a window sticker campaign he launched during certain 1980s tabloid scandals called 'Don't Knock the Royal Family'.

We retained top specialist Bribery and Corruption barrister Howard Godfrey QC to speak for our client in court. We faced heavyweight prosecutor David DuRose QC. After seven weeks of trial, the not guilty verdict was returned within 60 minutes.