Bark & Co is a leading UK firm specializing in fraud and business crime, providing expert legal advice across a variety of cases including commercial fraud, tax regulation, and white-collar crime since its establishment in 1996. The firm is recognized for its skilled lawyers and tailored approach, winning work primarily through client referrals, and it actively handles high-profile cases in both criminal and civil courts. Their expertise spans complex prosecutions, cash asset recovery, and they represent clients facing serious criminal charges, ensuring robust defense strategies.

1. Bark & Co Solicitors
UK Legal 500

2. Bark & Co’s clients benefit from the support
of one of the country’s leading fraud and
business crime firms. It’s highly-skilled
lawyers are committed to providing top
class advice at every stage of
proceedings. If it can prevent expensive
litigation then it will; if not then it will fight
tenaciously to protect its clients’ interests.

3. The firm
Established in 1996 by Giles Bark-Jones, Bark &
Co has developed into one of the UK’s most
progressive and successful fraud firms. A
member of the Specialist Fraud Panel, it handles
commercial and criminal fraud, business and tax
regulation, tax investigations, white-collar crime
and serious crime for individuals, national and
international companies and other bodies. The
firm has also established itself as a leader in the
field of cash and asset recovery in both criminal
and civil courts.

4. Bark & Co prides itself on the individual
qualities of its people, the collective
strength of its teams, and their skill in
tailoring advice to meet each client’s
individual needs. This flexible approach
and rigorous commitment to quality has
allowed the firm to win significant amounts
of work through client referrals.

5. Types of work undertaken:
Bark & Co handles a wide range of white-
collar crime and fraud cases, including
prosecutions and investigations brought
by SOCA, HM Revenue & Customs, the
SFO, the Special Compliance Office of the
Inland Revenue, the CPS and other
prosecuting bodies.

7. Corporate and commercial fraud: Bark & Co
became a member of the Serious Fraud
Panel at its inception and its senior staff
are accredited as supervisors of the most
serious and complex cases.
Acknowledged as one of the leaders in the
field, the firm has gained experience in
many of the major prosecutions brought
by the SFO and other agencies.

8. Expertise includes tax regulation, VAT and
duties tribunal work, defence of duty
evasion, money-laundering and carousel
fraud, as well as mortgage fraud,
investment fraud, corruption, pension fund
fraud, telecoms fraud, theft, fraudulent
trading by company directors and internet
fraud. Dedicated teams also deal with
confiscation and post- and pre-charge
restraint proceedings.

9. Recent notable work includes; the most high-
profile Serious Fraud Office prosecution
concerning PollyPeck International; R v D of
Torex Retail Plc involving charges of false
accounting; R v F in which prosecution counsel
described the proceedings as the ‘biggest case
ever’, and which involved an allegation of carbon
trading fraud. Finally, the firm’s FSA work
incudes large-scale insider dealing cases and
one of the first s397 FSMA prosecutions.

10. Criminal
The firm continues to act in large, high-profile
criminal trials, including murder, money
laundering, drugs importations, armed robbery
and people smuggling cases. It focuses on high-
end work, much of it international.
In R v Vian & ors; concerning police corruption in
the historical axe-in-the-head murder case from
20 years ago, a not guilty verdict was decided in
respect of the client following a complex and
fiercely fought challenge to the Crown’s overall
evidence during protracted many protected pre-
trial legal arguments.

11. The firm also advises individuals and
companies facing investigation or criminal
proceedings as a result of health and
safety breaches, taking cases from
precharge interviews through to trial.