R v F & B [2008] EWCA Crim 1868

This was an appeal by HMRC following Simon Baker's successful submission at half-time that a prosecution for money-laundering (a cash courier case involving £1.2 million) ought to be stopped as the Crown could not identify even the type of predicate offence from which the alleged proceeds of crime had come from. The Court of Appeal, who were considering the same issue in the case of Anwoir, allowed HMRC's appeal but certified a question of general public importance for the House of Lords as to the extent to which the Crown were obliged to identify the nature of the underlying offending in a money laundering prosecution. The appeal of F&B was considered and refused by the House of Lords in November 2008 (Simon Baker appearing for both defendants).