Meet the Team

James specialises in banking and financial services litigation and his practice centres on disputes which generate reputational threat against a highly regulated backdrop. Managing the consequential litigation arising from material fraud events has been a passion for James and he often trains organisations on how to apply the lessons learned for better preparedness. James is also a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel and is delighted to bring his breadth of perspective and experience to support the development of the South West Fraud Forum.

Paul heads the Government’s Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) for the South West of England. MaPS is tasked with improving the financial wellbeing of people across the UK and advises HM Treasury on policy matters such as debt advice, financial capability and consumer protection. Paul is one of the founders of the South West Fraud Forum and became involved due to the significant role MaPS plays in fighting pensions fraud.

Helen has been involved in providing expert evidence in court on fraud and financial irregularities for over 20 years including during two secondments to the Serious Fraud Office. Helen became involved with the South West Fraud Forum because of her interest in education and prevention which, in her experience, is often overlooked.

Adam has particular expertise in fraud, asset recovery and injunctive applications to help clients with the recovery
of assets, in particular money, intellectual property, data and confidential information. Adam has developed a reputation for successfully pursuing defendants arising from complex fraud nationally and internationally. This has
involved securing a number of injunctions on behalf of his clients, including freezing, doorsteps, Norwich Pharmacal
and search and delivery up orders. He is also a member and director of the Midlands Fraud Forum.

Marc has over 20 years’ policing experience in Economic Crime at both operational and strategic levels. He is keen to support the South West Fraud Forum in bridging the gap between the public and private sector approaches to tackling fraud and money laundering. In particular, he is striving to promote an enhanced service to fraud victims using multi-agency safeguarding measures and regulatory powers.

A tenant of Citadel Chambers since 2003 and Co-Founder of Synalogik Innovative Solutions, Daniel specialises in the prosecution of all grave criminal offences. Appointed to the AG’s unified list and a Grade 4 specialist fraud prosecutor.

In addition to his work in the criminal sector, Daniel sits on sports tribunals for a variety of Governing bodies, including the RFU, World Rugby & Sport Resolutions.

In 2018, Daniel Co-Founded Synalogik with experts from the intelligence and policing community. Synalogik provide data aggregation, automation and risk identification software solutions for compliance and fraud investigations. At Synalogik, Daniel holds the role of Chief Commercial Officer.

Ben is a Legal Director in the Commercial Litigation team at VWV solicitors. Ben regularly advises clients in relation to bringing or defending allegations of civil fraud and the recovery of misappropriated assets. Ben has acted on complex fraud matters including successfully acting for a former director of Bonhams who was alleged to have been involved in a fraudulent conspiracy (involving the most expensive car ever sold at auction at the time) and successfully defending a Luxembourg based investment company accused of defrauding former Ferrari chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, and family. As a passionate advocate of assisting organisations in reducing their fraud risk, Ben regularly speaks at events and webinars in this regard.

Jonathan is a former solicitor who was struck off the solicitor’s roll in 2010 and subsequently served six years of a twelve-year prison sentence for his facilitating role in a multi-million-pound mortgage and bank fraud. He was released from prison in June 2020. Whilst resident at HMP Parc, Bridgend, Jonathan completed an MSc (Distinction) in Counter Fraud and Counter Corruption Studies with Portsmouth University before commencing and completing in June 2023 a PhD in financial fraud and regulation at Cardiff University where he was supervised by globally recognized white collar crime academic, Mike Levi.

Jonathan is a published academic and has presented widely, both at home and internationally, at numerous academic, counter fraud conferences, masterclasses and seminars on fraud reduction strategies, financial crime, failure to prevent, ethical slippage, governance, regulation and compliance and the facilitating role of professional enablers in financial crime. Audiences, stakeholders, and partners have included the UNODC, the UK Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Serious Fraud Office, the Financial Conduct Authority, Solicitors Regulation Authority, International Compliance Association, the Dutch Ministry for Justice and Security and multiple UK banks and building societies. Jonathan is founder of IN8consulting.com, a financial crime advisory business and is a Lecturer in Law at UWE, Bristol where he undertakes research in criminal justice and white-collar crime and where he teaches on Financial Crime.

Peter Williams is a former Gwent Police officer who retired in 2016 after a 25 year policing career with 20 years in the C.I.D.. He then joined the Civil Service, initially working with the Office for National Statistics before moving to the Insolvency Service in 2018. Peter first served as an Investigator within the Official Receiver Services, later progressing into criminal investigation. He now leads the Criminal Investigations team at the Cardiff Office, where he oversees complex casework and provides strategic direction to the unit.

Dr Sam Mapston is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of the West of England. Her research interests lie in the law of financial crime, particularly, the law relating to money laundering, fraud, and corporate criminal liability. Sam has published her research in several leading law journals, including the Criminal Law Review and Journal of Business Law. She is a Steering Group Member of the South West Fraud Forum and the Financial Fraud Awareness Campaign, an Advisory Board Member with the Journal of Economic Criminology for Elsevier and a Co-Editor of the Law of Financial Crime Series for Routledge.

Lisa Peters is Operations Manager for TSSW, managing a small regional office and working with Members, who are from each of the 11 Trading Standards services operating in the South West region.  Lisa has a background in project management, which is utilised in managing grant funding to the region and providing oversight to the various projects that arise from this funding.  She also chairs TSSW’s tactical tasking group and has oversight of the cases managed by the regional enforcement team.

TSSW’s role is to maintain and improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of Trading Standards services in the South West, thus enabling them to better serve each of their own communities. The community benefit is through increased levels of activity protecting the community, including from scams, counterfeit and illegal products, substandard goods or services, and unsafe food products.

Omid Mojabi is an Assistant Director in EY’s Forensics practice, specialising in investigative due diligence and asset tracing. He advises clients on risk, integrity and reputational matters across transactions, investigations and disputes. Omid became involved with the South West Fraud Forum to support greater collaboration across the region and to help ensure local organisations benefit from shared learning drawn from complex fraud and misconduct cases.

Andrew is a police officer with over 25 years’ policing experience, the majority of which has been working in Economic Crime.  He has managed units investigating complex fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption, and asset recovery.  He now works at the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit where he supports police forces in the region and manages the Fraud and Cyber Protect, Prepare and Prevent Team.

Andrew joined the South West Fraud Forum where he uses his experience to help improve public private collaboration and  the response to fraud and cyber-crime.

Adam is a forensic accountant with over 20 years of experience leading investigations into accounting irregularities, fraud, bribery and corruption. In addition to his consulting experience, he has also worked in-house for a FTSE100 energy company and a Magic Circle law firm.

Adam has been ranked by Who’s Who Legal (now Lexology) as a Future Leader in Investigations and also serves as an Advisory Panel member to the Association of Corporate Investigators.

Adam joined the South West Fraud Forum after moving to Bristol in 2023, with a desire to support anti-fraud initiatives and education in the region.

Giles has a wealth of experience dealing with substantial commercial fraud litigation.

Over the last 34 years he has appeared at all levels up to and including the Court of Appeal; he has also acted outside the jurisdiction including in the Supreme Court of the Seychelles and in the Supreme Court of Gibraltar.

In recent years he has successfully acted in a number of high-profile high-value corporate fraud cases, including representing over 300 claimants in a multi-million pound corporate fraud case in the Cayman Islands arising out of the CWM FX Ponzi scheme scandal, and the successful defence of a £125M claim against a high-profile fashion and internet entrepreneur which was dismissed as being fraudulent.

He is currently lead Counsel in a £200M unlawful means conspiracy case in the Commercial Court which has involved securing  without  notice  imaging  orders  and  is  against  multiple  Defendants  based  in  the  USA,  UAE,  South Africa  and  the  UK.

Since taking Silk Giles has also acted as the lead Counsel in a number of high-value international arbitrations involving allegations of fraud.

Giles’ practice covers all aspects of commercial fraud with a particular emphasis on those frauds that take place in a corporate context.

Natasha is a commercial and chancery barrister with a particular interest in civil fraud, asset recovery and contentious insolvency. Her fraud work spans both the equitable claims, namely breach of fiduciary duty, knowing receipt and dishonest assistance, and the economic torts, in particular unlawful means conspiracy. She acted for the claimant in a five day trial concerning a joint venture in which she successfully resisted an allegation that a series of invoices were a sham, the second defendant being a Jersey entity whose shares were held by a discretionary trust, and she was instructed in relation to a claim of approximately £8.4 million concerning the misapplication of funds, deceit, unlawful means conspiracy, secret commissions, knowing receipt and dishonest assistance.

She acts for applicants and respondents in urgent and high-risk applications. Her injunction work includes freezing relief, quia timet applications, injunctive relief to recover misappropriated confidential material and applications to restrain the presentation of winding-up petitions and the appointment of administrators. She also advises on the pursuit and enforcement of claims across borders, including against assets held offshore. She accepts instructions in domestic and international arbitrations and in matters involving cryptoassets. Her insolvency work includes claims involving office-holders, among them a c.£1.65 million matter concerning allegations of breach of fiduciary duty by LPA receivers, together with transactions at an undervalue, misfeasance and the validity of charges said to secure sham loan agreements.

Natasha is Junior Counsel to the Crown on the Attorney General’s Panel and was Panel Counsel to the Government of the British Virgin Islands from 2023 to 2025. She joined the Forum to contribute a civil recovery perspective, the question that matters most to a victim of fraud usually being whether the money can be traced and brought back.