Overview
Ini is a barrister specialising in regulatory work and complex criminal cases. She has particular expertise in fraud and financial crime and is ranked in The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners for her fraud work. Ini is a collaborative worker whose attention to detail and meticulous case preparation is often praised. She is a persuasive advocate who is trusted and respected.
Ini receives instructions in relation to regulatory and professional disciplinary cases, often advising the client from the outset. A number of Ini's cases involve medical professionals or the respective regulatory body.
She also appears on behalf of the Care Quality Commission and Local Authorities.
Ini is also qualified to practice at the New York Bar.
Judicial appointments
- Fee-paid Judge of the First-tier Tribunal: (Social Entitlement Chamber).
Regulatory appointments
- Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC): Legal Assessor.
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA): Legal Advisor.
- General Optical Council (GOC): Legal Advisor.
- MOPAC appointed Legally Qualified Chair: police misconduct hearings taking place within the London Region, specifically Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police, British Transport Police, and Ministry of Defence Police.
Professional panel appointments
- Attorney General's Civil Panel of Counsel: B Panel.
- CPS Grade 4 Specialist Fraud panel counsel.
- CPS Grade 4 General Crime panel counsel.
- CPS Organised Crime panel counsel.
- London Boroughs Legal Alliance (LBLA) – Grade A for Crime.
- General Dental Council (GDC) grade C (10 years' and above call) appointed advocate.
- List of Specialist Regulatory Advocates in health and safety and environmental law (List B).
Additional Information
Pupillage Supervisor
- Ini is a Pupillage Supervisor and trained advocacy tutor for Lincoln’s Inn.
Direct Public Access
- Ini accepts Direct Public Access instructions.
Awards and Internships
- Prior to joining the Bar, Ini undertook an internship with the United Nations (UN) High Commission for Refugees and worked as a volunteer for the Medical Foundation Caring for Victims of Torture (now known as Freedom from Torture).
- Thomas More bursary (Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn).
- Hardwicke Scholarship (Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn).
Business Crime & Financial Regulation
She has a wide range of experience in fraud litigation including large-scale MTIC fraud, VAT fraud, benefit fraud and Excise fraud. She is instructed in multi-handed cases of complexity and volume.
Ini also appears in the First Tier VAT Tribunals and is regularly instructed from early on in the proceedings. Her experience practising in crime complements this work and she is highly knowledgeable with regard to case preparation and presentation.
Professional Discipline & Regulatory
Ini has a Professional Regulation and Disciplinary practice. She appears in cases before the General Dental Council, General Pharmaceutical Council, Social Work England, General Medical Council and Health and Care Professions Council.
She accepts instructions to advise and to conduct hearings before fitness to practice, health and interim order committees. Ini has experience of misconduct, probity and lack of competence issues, and also applications for review.
Ini is able to draw on her experience in the fields of general crime and complex fraud. She has great experience dealing expert and lay witnesses, technical evidence and trial issues. Ini has a commendable ability assimilate and present complex arguments and evidence, meaning that she is perfectly placed in this area of practice.
She also undertakes work on behalf of Local Authorities and has developed a strong practice in prosecutions brought by Trading Standards and Environmental Health Services.
She is an appointed legal assessor (NMC) and legal advisor (ACCA & GOC).
Ini has been appointed to the General Dental Council panel (band B) and the London Boroughs Legal Alliance panel (band A).
Criminal Defence
Ini defends in serious criminal cases and has particular experience in cases of fraud.
She has been instructed in cases of serious assaults, robbery, kidnap, false imprisonment, rape, benefit fraud, VAT fraud, facilitation of illegal entry, money laundering, drugs offences (importation and supply).
Criminal Prosecutions - Private & Public
Ini prosecutes serious criminal case and has particular experience in cases of fraud. She has been instructed in cases of serious assaults, robbery, kidnap, false imprisonment, rape, benefit fraud, VAT fraud, facilitation of illegal entry, money laundering, drugs offences (importation and supply).
She accepts instructions in relation to Private Prosecution matters.
Professional Memberships
- Fraud Lawyers Association.
- Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.
- Female Fraud Lawyers Forum.
- Criminal Bar Association.
Cases of Note
Professional Discipline & Regulatory
General Dental Council (GDC):
Case involving allegations of non-consensual touching, sexual harassment and other unprofessional behaviours.
Case involving allegations that the Registrant, treated the patient, aged 94, between 2005 and 2015.
This was a case of supervised neglect and treatment without informed consent. Due to the patient’s health the case was entirely based on dental records, radiographs and appointment history to reconstruct the treatment provided.
Case where it was alleged that the Registrant had bullied colleagues and abused her position, attended work whilst unfit and stolen prescription medication from her place of work and also offered prescribed medication to colleagues.
General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC):
Instructed on behalf of a Consultant Psychiatrist
Instructed on behalf of a Consultant Psychiatrist to resist an application for an interim order suspending him from practice where it was alleged to have prescribed excessive quantities of controlled drugs without proper review and contra clinical guidelines and the patients’ interests. In excess of 10 patients in question.
Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC):
Case involving allegations of assault on an 82-year-old dementia patient by a nurse (facts not proved).
Case involving a newly qualified nurse accused dragging a patient in a sheet across a residential unit and dishonest record keeping
No misconduct found
Case involving a nurse accused of dishonest and deficient record keeping.
Interim order hearing
Case involving a nurse accused of striking and shouting at a dementia patient in a care home.
Facts found proved: conditions of practice imposed.
Nurse accused of a number of failings.
Case involving a nurse accused of a number of failings including record keeping, incorrect administration of medication and undertaking insufficient observations.
Health Care & Professionals Council (HCPC):
Case involving a social worker accused of an inappropriate relationship with a foster carer and bias.
Case where the Registrant was accused of dishonesty, poor record keeping and dereliction of duty.
Local Authority
Royal Mail Group v London Borough of Hounslow
Instructed by Local Authority to prosecute the Royal Mail Group in relation to health and safety breaches. The breaches were found to be a significant cause of a serious non-fatal accident, in which an employee was struck by a 7.5 tonne delivery lorry. A fine of £1.6 million was imposed. All prosecution costs were recovered.
Business Crime / Fraud
R v B and others (Operation Surging)
Led junior in the prosecution of a £25 million money laundering conspiracy. The cash derived from excise duty evasion (alcohol). Complex company structuring with fourteen “shell” companies with sham Directors which were formed by the organisers and the proceeds of crime laundered through the company bank accounts and a corporate secondary layer. The series of three trials were prosecuted in 2019 into 2021 at Southwark Crown Court. Ini is also instructed in the resultant confiscation proceedings due to conclude in 2023.
R v. K & Ors (Operations Berg Meeker & Bygone)
A joint Home Office & HMRC investigation concerning immigration, revenue fraud and money laundering on an industrial scale. Ini acted as disclosure counsel. High profile case with press links below:
R v. K & Ors (Operations Berg Meeker & Bygone)
R v D and Others
Led junior in a case alleging a calculated and complex VAT fraud involving sham companies and directorships
R v A and Others
Junior alone in a case alleging excise duty evasion and tobacco smuggling.
R v D and others
VAT fraud committed through two London based Indian restaurants over a four-year period.
London Borough of Croydon v G
Trading standards Case where a builder had breached the Unfair Trading and Consumer Standards Regulations and also committed fraud, His victims were typically elderly, females living alone. A lifetime CRASBO was imposed on the defendant, operative throughout the United Kingdom. This was a first such order to be secured by the London Borough of Croydon A confiscation order was also secured against the Defendant.
R v. A, S & A
Led junior in a case involving a number of accountants and businessmen on charges of conspiracy to defraud the UK Revenue of over £6 million and money laundering. The prosecution case alleges the use of numerous companies in various jurisdictions including Gibraltar and Belize to effect the fraud and to launder the proceeds.
R v C
Junior alone in a case brought the Department for Work and Pensions and the London Borough of Newham concerning benefit fraud. The Defendant owned 14 properties and had interests in a lettings agency and restaurant which was not declared to the relevant authorities. Confiscation proceedings pursued in this matter which resulted in a confiscation order in the sum of £750,000.
R v U
Prosecution junior in a VAT fraud trial, instructed by Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office. Two of the four defendants were serving Customs Officers.
R v DI
Benefit fraud involving Income Support, Housing and Council Tax benefit overpayments in excess of £90,000.
R v SAC and AGV
Prosecution on behalf of the London Borough of Croydon concerning benefit fraud, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and possession of false identity documents. The Defendants alleged to have used 9 different identities over a 4-year period.
R v C and J
Prosecution counsel in a case alleging multiple instances facilitation of illegal entry (sponsorship based on false documentation and false familial relationships). The Defendants were husband and wife and operated using multiple identities.
R v HK
Prosecution of an NHS employee who defrauded the NHS by falsifying timesheets and invoices.
Tax Tribunal
PTGIL vs HMRC
Represented HMRC in an appeal against the denial of input tax (Kittel case) (led junior) Amount in issue totalled £13,752,000.
JSBL vs HRMC
Instructed to represent HMRC in a MTIC fraud / Kittel case relating to fast moving goods. Assessment in the sum of approx. £600,000 (80 deals).
FLL vs HMRC
Instructed as a led junior in a case relating to the provision of fulfilment logistics services for sales of contact lenses. Complex case involving time limits, a s69C penalty, determination of a company’s fixed establishment (Seychelles) and the application of the Kittel principles (MTIC fraud). Total amount denied is £1.3 million.
SDL vs HRMC
Instructed by HMRC in a case where the right to claim input tax was denied on two grounds (preferred and alternative) - deficient invoicing and Kittel (MTIC fraud) (approx. £90,000). The case involved the supply of services / labour.
CCSL vs HMRC
Instructed in a complex MTIC contra-trading case involving the supply of high-end electronic goods. Denial input tax approx. £1.4 million.
ML v HMRC [2017] UKFTT 0862
Instructed by HMRC (led junior) in a case concerning assessments in the region of £6 million in respect of transactions concerning “airtime” and an appeal against deregistration. FTT decision refusing expedition of the deregistration appeal and consolidating 5 appeals.
RL v HMRC
Instructed by HMRC (led junior) in a case concerning a decision to deny input tax of £23 million. Case involved MTIC fraud and contra-trading. Document heavy case - over 130 lever arch files of evidence, complex expert evidence regarding grey market, and links to criminal investigations.
Crime
R v T and others (Crown Court)
Led Defence junior in a six handed conspiracy to burgle.
R v Makuwa (Liliane) [2006] 1 WLR 2755, (2006) Crim. L. R. 911, (2006) 2 Cr. App. R. 11
Led junior in an appeal against conviction to the Court of Appeal. The case concerned the interpretation and application of s 31 (1) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
R v A and others
Led junior for the defence in a four-handed trial for false imprisonment, rape and conspiracy to supply of Class A drugs.
R v H
Prosecution junior in a trial for the sale and supply of counterfeit medicinal products and money laundering, instructed by the Medicine and Health Regulatory Authority.
