On 13th November 2007, this firm was the subject of raids by HMRC - see "Business as usual" item of last year. 

We have always believed that there was no justification for the treatment received by Mercury and its clients on that day, so we sought legal advice and applied for Judicial Review of the decision by the Crown Court to grant the relevant search warrants. The case was heard in the royal Courts of Justice over two days in September. Yesterday, on the anniversary of the raids, Mr Justice Underhill handed down his decision.

In Court, His Lordship reminded HMRC of their duties to be scrupulously accurate when seeking to obtain warrants from a Crown Court Judge in the absence of those on the receiving end of the warrants. He concluded that not all the relevant facts had been disclosed by HMRC when the warrants were applied for and if the Court had been given the full picture,  the warrants would not have been authorised. As a consequence, permission to mount "raids" would not have been granted. Accordingly he ordered that the warrants be quashed and accepted Mercury’s position that they had been obtained unlawfully. The Judge described search warrants as a "nuclear weapon", making it clear that they must not be abused. Items seized from our premises will now be returned to our solicitors.

We are obviously pleased and feel vindicated by the judgement. We hope that in light of this, and the comments made by Mr Justice Underhill, HMRC will accept that this is a civil matter and not a criminal one. That said, we intend to continue to co-operate with HMRC as much as possible.

The company will now review the decision with our legal team and consider the next steps but it remains our intention to bring this matter to the earliest possible conclusion. We hope that in the circumstances, HMRC will feel the same. No further public comment will be made unless and until it is appropriate to do so.