P & O (Dover) Ltd. v. Commissioners of Customs and Excise, [1992] V.A.T.T.R. 221

The appellant along with seven individual employees was charged with manslaughter in connection with the sinking of its vessel. In finding that the appellant was the recipient of legal services provided by the separate counsel for each of the individual accused, the Tribunal stated:

"The Company, the evidence shows, not only approved the choice of solicitor but it also instructed the solicitor and agreed to pay it: and the solicitor would have had no right to recover costs and fees from the individual employee were the Company to be unable to or refuse to pay for any reason. The individual employee was admittedly a client of the solicitor, but that in no way displaces the fact that the Company was a client as principal in relation to each solicitor. The solicitors' services were, therefore, provided to the Company, notwithstanding that the individual employee also received the benefit of those services."

The appellant along with seven individual employees was charged with manslaughter in connection with the sinking of its vessel. The appellant's own counsel formed the view that the success or failure of the prosecution of the appellant depended largely on the success of the prosecution of the individual employees. It was found that the legal services of the separate counsel representing the employees were used for the purpose of the appellant's business for purposes of s. 14(3) of the Value Added Tax Act 1985 given the various business benefits that the appellant derived from its successful defence of the charges against it.