Pastor acquitted of cheating the revenue

Nick James and Huda Musa secured the unanimous acquittal of their client SZ yesterday, following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court for a £3.5m Cheat on the Revenue and associated money-laundering offences.  SZ was a Pastor and administrator at a Church which made fraudulent gift aid reclaims from 2013 to 2018.   It was alleged that SZ had assisted the senior Pastor, who was found guilty of all counts, to make the inflated claims.  SZ’s case, that he had been trying to grow and market the Church and he had no knowledge of the size of the gift aid reclaims, was presented over a number of days using text messages, emails and contemporaneous Church promotional material. Nick and Huda were instructed by Malisha Patel of Bark & Co.