Court of Appeal Overturn Finding of Dishonest Assistance Against Solicitors Firm

39 Essex Chambers’ Barristers Vikram Sachdeva KC and Santosh Carvalho have successfully overturned a finding of dishonest assistance against a firm of solicitors in the Court of Appeal. The appeal succeeded on all grounds before Philips, Nugee and Falk LLJ. The unanimous judgment is required reading for civil fraud practitioners.

The judgment authoritatively clarifies the test for establishing blind-eye dishonesty, in particular the requirement to plead and prove that the defendant subjectively (i) had a suspicion grounded and targeted on specific facts; and (ii) made a conscious decision to look away for fear of discovering the truth. Absent this subjective prerequisite being satisfied, the Court held that the two limbed approach in Royal Brunei Airlines v Tan [1995] 2 AC 378 and Ivey v Genting Casino [2017] UKSC 67 (ascertaining the subjective state of mind followed by an objective assessment of the conduct by the standards of ordinary decent people) could not be satisfied.

The Court of Appeal also considered the older authority of Grupo Torras SA v Al-Sabah & Anor [2001] CLC 221 which the first instance judge had held to be the authoritative test for dishonest assistance, more important than Royal Brunei Airlines v Tan or Ivey v Genting. The Court accepted the Appellant’s submissions that Grupo Torras did not formulate a unique test for dishonest assistance claims against solicitors or other professionals. Rather, it was a decision confined to its own particular facts, which merely applied the long-standing authority of Royal Brunei Airlines v Tan.

The judgment is also noteworthy for clarifying the limits of relying upon recklessness to prove dishonesty. The Court accepted the Appellant’s argument, contrary to the leading practitioner text Civil Fraud – Law, Practice and Procedure (1st ed) and the first instance judgment, that recklessness is not necessarily ‘strong’ evidence of dishonesty.

The full judgment can be found here: Grosvenor Property Developers Limited (in liquidation) v Partner Law Limited [2026] EWCA Civ 1238