Company
Tradition Financial Services Ltd v Bilta (UK) Ltd and others [2023] EWCA Civ 112, [2023] All ER (D) 40 (Feb)
The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed an appeal and cross appeal in a case regarding missing trader inter-community (MTIC) fraud. The MTIC fraud involved spot trading in carbon credits under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. Five claimant companies (by their liquidators) issued proceedings against four defendants, in which they alleged that MTIC fraud had taken place in 2009. A fifth defendant, TFS, was later joined to the proceedings. The claims against TFS were: (i) claims by the companies themselves alleging TFS’s dishonest assistance in the breach of fiduciary duty by the directors of the claimants; and (ii) claims by the liquidators alleging participation by TFS in the fraudulent trading of the businesses of the claimant companies pursuant to s 213 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986). The other claims were settled. In the case against TFS, the court held that the defendants’ defence on limitation succeeded and accordingly the claims against TFS were statute barred. Further, that the claimants’