The Court of Appeal last week suspended restraint orders issued against the directors of Eastenders in December - but the Crown Prosecution’s fight is far from over.

The Old Bailey will hear a fresh application for restraint orders against Eastenders Cash & Carry plc directors Kulwant Hare and Alex Windsor on 16 February, after The Appeal Court dramatically ruled last Tuesday that “the judge was wrong on 6 December to find reasonable cause to believe the three alleged offenders who have appealed had benefited from the alleged criminal conduct”.

The initial restraint orders had been signed by Judge Hawkins at the Old Bailey in December following a 40-minute hearing, a day before co-ordinated raids on Eastenders premises and the arrests of Kulwant Hare, his brother Avtar Hare who was also arrested in conjunction with the alleged duty fraud and Alexander Windsor.

Restraint orders would prevent Hare and Windsor from disposing of their assets without permission from the court.

Under the Proceeds of Crime act, restraint orders can be made when “a criminal investigation has been started” and “there is reasonable cause to believe that the alleged offender has benefited from his criminal conduct”.

A witness statement presented by the Crown Prosecution from financial investigator Alan Brown in December said HM Revenue & Customs was conducting “a covert investigation into the activities of a serious and organised criminal group (OCG) believed to be responsible for large-scale evasion of Excise duty, VAT and the subsequent laundering of the proceeds”.

Brown said that Eastenders group operated “as a wholesaler and the retail arm of the OCG selling the non-duty and VAT-paid alcohol into the markets.”

“The HMRC investigation has confirmed the suspicions of the Belgian authorities [have been raised] and that an attack on the UK tax regimes has been committed and is ongoing,” Brown added.

But Lord Justice Hooper, sitting in the Court of Appeal, said: “We do not see how the judge can rely upon such a broad and unsupported statement to find ‘reasonable cause’. “He cannot find it just because he is told that an investigation has confirmed the suspicions of the Belgian authorities.”

The Court of Appeal suspended the restraint order and allowed the CPS to make a fresh application.

On 26 January the Court of Appeal discharged the order appointing a management receiver to Eastenders Cash & Carry because “the assets of the Eastenders group were not realisable property held by the two alleged offenders.”

Read more
Eastenders directors win court appeal (5 February 2011)
Eastenders back in business for the receivers (21 January 2011)

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