Lewis Silkin said it represents Rockfire Investment Finance, in liquidation, in Quincecare claims against Royal Bank of Scotland, a NatWest Group entity. The claim is valued at about £180 million.
The claims relate to payment instructions connected to alleged fraud involving companies linked to Liam Kavanagh, and Thurrock Council is identified as one of the investors.
Quincecare claims concern whether a bank executed instructions in circumstances where it should have questioned whether the person giving them had authority to do so. In July 2023, the UK Supreme Court said in Philipp v Barclays that this duty is tied to questions of mandate and agency, rather than a general obligation for banks to assess the wisdom of an authorised customer payment.
Public documents linked to the wider Thurrock matter describe the council’s exposure to complex renewable-energy investment structures. Reporting by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism said Thurrock transferred £40 million to Rockfire Investment Finance in November 2018 and that most of the money then left the company’s accounts in three payments.