{"id":5285,"date":"2018-03-07T09:26:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T09:26:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:56:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T11:56:14","slug":"r-v-shillam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/r-v-shillam.php","title":{"rendered":"R v Shillam – 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

R v Shillam [2013] EWCA Crim 160<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conspiracy \u2013 Knowledge of Co-Conspirators \u2013 Separate Conspiracy<\/p>\n

Facts<\/h3>\n

Shillam bought cocaine from R, in order to sell.\u00a0 He had been observed by police surveillance units meeting with R and was arrested driving a van and carrying over six grams of cocaine which he had bought from R.\u00a0 When police raided R\u2019s home, they found a hydraulic press and cutting agents along with two other dealers.\u00a0 The prosecution case was that whilst R was the central figure, there was a single grand conspiracy between all of the defendants in producing and distributing the cocaine.\u00a0 This was despite Shillam never having contacted or had any of the other defendant\u2019s phone numbers other than the central figure R.\u00a0 The defendant was charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine and was convicted.\u00a0 He appealed.<\/p>\n

Issues<\/h3>\n

Whether the defendant could be involved in a single conspiracy with the other co-conspirators if he did not know of their existence? Whether there was a single conspiracy or a number of conspiracies between two or more people all of which involved the central figure R.<\/p>\n

Decision\/Outcome<\/h3>\n

Shillam\u2019s appeal was allowed.\u00a0 There was no single grand conspiracy between the conspirators to supply cocaine amongst and between the networks of dealers of which Shillam was only one.\u00a0 Instead, each was guilty of a separate conspiracy with R to supply cocaine within their own network. Shillam did not even know of the other dealers\u2019 existence and could not be aware of their existence within the conspiracy.\u00a0 As such, his conspiracy to supply cocaine was merely with R.\u00a0 This principle had been set down in R v Griffiths <\/em><\/strong>[1966] 1 QB 589 <\/strong>and could properly be applied here.\u00a0\u00a0 A conviction for single conspiracy between all the defendants was unsafe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shillam bought cocaine from R, in order to sell.\u00a0He had been observed by police surveillance units meeting with R and was arrested driving a van and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-5285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-uk-law"],"yoast_head":"\nR v Shillam - 2013 | LawTeacher.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shillam bought cocaine from R, in order to sell.\u00a0He had been observed by police surveillance units meeting with R and was arrested driving a van and...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/r-v-shillam.php\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"R v Shillam - 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