A crown court spectator has been jailed for contempt after a judge spotted him laughing at the jury as he watched the end of a complex £150million tax fraud trial from the public gallery.
Construction worker Michael Moynihan, 31, was seen pointing at jurors and sniggering to a friend as Judge Steven Everett was finishing his summing up of 14 weeks of evidence on March 27.
Moynihan was asked to leave the courtroom by staff, but he first refused to go and then declined to give his name.
The judge at Chester Crown Court asked him to explain his behaviour, which he did not do, and then asked him to leave immediately.
Moynihan ‘defied’ this instruction and instead told the judge: ‘You ought to be patient.’
Michael Moynihan (pictured above) was jailed after laughing at a jury and talking back to a judge while watching a £105million tax fraud trial
The construction worker, 31, was found guilty of contempt of court by Judge Steven Everett
Mr Moynihan, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, was subsequently arrested, with inquiries revealing he had been at the court to observe a different trial.
He was locked up for 21 days after being found guilty of contempt of court, with the judge explaining that he needed to ‘send a message’.
The disruptive onlooker, who lost his left leg in an accident in 2021, risked the lengthy trial being abandoned, the judge said, describing his behaviour as ‘threatening’ to the jury.
Two of the jurors who saw Moynihan pointing at them were said to be ‘obviously affected’ and were looking down at their feet as they later filed in and out of the jury box.
Judge Everett explained that if the jury members had asked themselves why he had been pointing and laughing at them, it could have led to the trial being abandoned.
The trial was part of criminal proceedings that had been ongoing for ten years and had cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Despite fears the trial would fold due to jurors feeling intimidated, the panel later convicted two men, including the mastermind of a fake designer clothing scam, who ran one of the UK’s largest ever carousel tax fraud schemes – also known as missing trader fraud, an example of VAT fraud.
The judge told Moynihan: ‘The court was packed when this took place. There were all the advocates and also the public gallery was full.
Moynihan (pictured above) was arrested at Chester Crown Court after the incident on March 27
Judge Everett said Moynihan’s behaviour was ‘threatening’ to the jury and risked the costly trial being abandoned
‘It’s important that everybody understands that the court is a place where people have to behave.
‘If people do not behave in court, we are heading down the road to anarchy and that is a problem.
‘I found your behaviour threatening and arrogant. It was not just rude, it was way beyond that and what concerned me most was it was threatening to the jury. I see that they saw that.
‘You pointed at the jury and laughed at them for reasons you may understand, but I had no idea why you behaved in that horrible way.
‘Then, having seen you put at risk this very lengthy and costly trial, when I asked you what it was about, you refused to answer.
‘In fact, you were rude and arrogant to me. Personally, that does not matter, but it’s in the face of the court, that is really important.
‘You would not leave the court when I told you and told me that I ought to be patient.
‘You have an enormous chip on your shoulder. You were somebody who decided that he was going to do what he wanted to do, rather than behave with respect and dignity in the court.
‘Had you just been rude to me, I would not be sending you to prison, but there’s more to it. The court has to send out a message that if you behave like that you go to prison.’
Moynihan had gone to court because a girlfriend was due to testify in a trial on an unrelated public order matter involving four other men also before Judge Everett, and he went to the public gallery to wait for that case to start.
The judge was giving the fraud trial jury instructions prior to them being sent out to deliberate on a verdict when he saw Moynihan’s behaviour.
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Despite concerns that Moynihan’s (left) actions would risk the trial being abandoned, the jury went on to convict two men of money laundering and conspiracy to cheat the public revenue
Moynihan’s counsel said he had been on painkillers on the day of the incident that made him ‘too relaxed’
Judge Everett added: ‘You were laughing at them, I saw you, I know what I saw.
‘I am, in effect, your judge and jury and nothing you can say is going to change my view of that. Both myself and court staff took notice of it.
‘I took the view that, not only was it rude and arrogant, but the behaviour could easily be taken to be a threat.
‘Two members of the jury saw it and were obviously affected, looking down at the feet as they were going out.
‘I asked Michael Moynihan, ‘Why are you behaving in this way?’ He refused to answer and refused to give his name.
‘He refused to leave. If he had left, that probably would’ve been the end of it.
‘But he stood up, then decided he was not going to leave. Instead, he was going to leave under his own stream and in his own time.
‘He started putting his coat on over his arm. I told him to leave immediately and he defied me. He told me I ought to be more patient.
‘He went out the door and I asked the court staff to bring him back in. He refused the request at the door of the court by security officers, who told him if he left he would be arrested.
‘What has happened since then is that police did arrest him. I asked the Chief Constable to arrange that, if he did not come to court this morning, I would issue a warrant.’
However, she said Moynihan apologises for his behaviour and ‘knows it was wrong’
Moynihan’s counsel Kay Driver said her client had been on painkillers that made him ‘too relaxed’.
She added: ‘He knows it was wrong, but says he saw someone in the jury he thought he’d been to school with. He pointed them out to someone who was close to him.
‘He realises now that could be very intimidating to a jury member.
‘Clearly, he was not aware that the trial had been ongoing for such a long time. But nevertheless, he should not have pointed the way he did.
‘Having had time to reflect on his actions, he wishes to apologise for that. He did not wish to risk the trial process.
‘His grandfather is a magistrate, who gave him a really good telling off and saying the courtroom is not a pub.
‘He apologises for his language and behaviour to Your Honour.’
The fraud trial that Moynihan was watching involved sock manufacturer Arif Patel, 44, of Peston, Lancashire and his criminal gang, which tried to steal £97million through VAT repayment claims on false exports of textiles and mobile phones.
They also bulk imported and sold counterfeit clothes from China and Turkey with a value of at least £50million, had they been genuine.
The proceeds were used to buy property across Preston and London through offshore bank accounts.
Patel’s company, Faisaltex Ltd, had been at the heart of the criminal empire since 2004, but he fled to Dubai in 2011 and was convicted in his absence, while his two brothers are wanted.
Patel was found guilty of false accounting, conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, the onward sale of counterfeit clothing and money laundering.
Co-accused Mohamed Jaffar Ali, 58, of Dubai was also found guilty of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and money laundering.
He had also laundered the proceeds of their scam through bank accounts in Dubai.
While he had attended the trial at Chester Crown Court, he fled before it was concluded and was convicted in his absence also.
They will be sentenced next month.
Reporting restrictions were also lifted, revealing 24 other members of the criminal empire were convicted in five trials between 2011 and 2014 and jailed for a total of more than 116 years.
