Talk:Chris Tooley

Request for Review Under BLP Policy: Chris Tooley Article

I am writing as a professional representative of Mr Christopher Tooley to bring to the Editors' attention issues related to Biographies of Living Persons, which were brought to our attention by unpaid members of the public. This is in regards to the article relating to Mr Tooley on Wikipedia, which this Talk page relares to, and for the avoidance of any doubt can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Tooley

The "Business Career" section of the article reads as follows:

"Tooley held senior positions at Lycamobile, a London-based provider of international calling services with operations in several countries. He was described as a "company veteran" when he was appointed as CEO of Lycamobile Group in 2014. He left the role in 2023, and later that year was removed as a director of Lycamobile UK Ltd.

In October 2023, along with other Lycamobile executives, Tooley was sentenced in France to a three-year jail term, part suspended, and fined 250,000 euros for complicity in VAT tax fraud and money laundering involving Lycamobile and associated companies. He was also banned from managing a company in France for a period of five years."

This appears to present Mr Tooley as having been convicted of a criminal offence. In fact, the court's decision referenced in the article was appealed by Mr Tooley on the same day (see: https://www.ft.com/content/7fb28e73-a316-4002-a950-8ee3de1d6be9). Under French criminal procedure, an appeal has a suspensive effect, meaning that the execution of the judgment is suspended and the case is reheard in full before the Court of Appeal. This is explained here by a public source pertaining to a leading practitioner of French law, as well as in many other public and official sources: https://braun-avocat.com/en/court-of-appeal/.

Therefore as a consequence of Mr Tooley's appeal, the presumption of innocence continues to apply until a final and non-appealable decision is rendered, and there is no conviction standing against Mr Tooley.

Official court documents and correspondence provided by various French legal experts and practitioners, which you can find here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o5RAUUnX_y3PSzH62_D6UDTM5uN9s0UA?usp=drive_link, shows that:

- Mr Tooley's appeal was lodged on the same day as the initial judgment.

- The appeal suspends the effects of the decision, including the declaration of guilt.

- Under French law and Article 6 §2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the defendants must continue to benefit from the presumption of innocence until a definitive judgment is issued. Consequently, they cannot currently be considered guilty or convicted while the appeal is pending.

We believe the article’s current wording presents a non-final decision as a settled conviction, thus conflicting with Wikipedia’s policies on Biographies of Living Persons, particularly the requirement that contentious material about living individuals must be accurate, carefully worded, and supported by reliable sources. We will be grateful for your swift cooperation with us on this matter to remedy this. Tomnj2015 (talk) 15:02, 12 June 2026 (UTC)