Good things come to those that wait!

Anyone who works in the criminal justice system has to practice patience but we think a special mention should be reserved for CCL’s own cell site expert Matt Tart and his six-year wait!

This summer, six years after casework commenced in 2016, Matt finally picked up his commendation award from the National Crime Agency for his outstanding contribution to Operation Credibility. After giving expert testimony in court in 2018, Matt was recognised in the 2020 NCA Awards only for the pandemic to defer the actual presentation until now.

Operation Credibility was a large-scale conspiracy to smuggle up to £20 million of heroin into the UK from Pakistan. On conclusion of the trial, 11 suspects were jailed for more than 130 years collectively and £17m of assets were recovered.

The cell site analysis was as follows:

o    100+ phones, a year of criminality and 100K+ lines of call data were considered
o   Attribution assessments and commentary on specific days of alleged criminality were conducted
o   Extensive surveys were undertaken, although a large-scale network change between the time of the calls and those of the surveys in one of the areas required development of new methods

There were two trials, during which Matt gave 50 hours of oral evidence as well as providing investigative support. The Judge commended Matt’s work during his summing up.

 But the trials were just the spear tip to a hugely complex, demanding investigation that ran over two years – and throughout cell site was seen as the critical strand in making the case and taking it to court.
 

‍