Practice Profile

I am a senior practitioner of 28 years’ call, whose practice is now exclusively based in the prosecution of serious crime, predominantly in the Greater London area. The type of offences that I prosecute range right across the criminal calendar : From attempted murder, death by dangerous driving, serious violence and armed robbery to perverting the course of justice, complex fraud and drug importations. The latter cases have led to many contested confiscation hearings. I have recently prosecuted cases for the Flying Squad and the Middle Market Drugs Project. I am frequently instructed to act as a Leading junior.

[I have considerable experience of cases involving mobile phone schedules and cell site analysis, facets of criminal investigation that are fast becoming common-place].

My particular specialty lies in the field of complex fraud. I have been instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute many such cases and have established a reputation for deploying the evidence in a simple and straightforward manner that is readily understood by a jury. An important adjunct to the presentation of such cases is the preparation of a comprehensive and simply indexed jury bundle, together with schedules and admissions. A good jury bundle, which always accompanies the jury into its retiring room, should “tell the story”.

I have also been instructed as trial counsel by the Serious Fraud Office in two substantial cases that both went to trial. The first involved the infamous “Ostrich Farming Corporation” scam which resulted in the conviction of three of the company’s directors. The fraud, in part, involved the sale of non-existent birds to investors who were promised high-yield returns on their so-called “investments”. The non-existent animals, which ought to have been reared and kept in Belgium, would have laid a large number of eggs each year from which one might, in due course, have become the owner of ones own flock. The Head Farmer responsible for keeping the birds said that if the company really had had available all the birds that it had purported to have sold, he would have needed “a farm the size of Belgium to have kept them in”. The investigation included the tracing of millions of pounds, offshore, to the Isle of Man and the now defunct Euro Bank in the Cayman Islands.

In the other SFO case, three directors of The Corporate Services Group, a public company, were prosecuted for over-inflating the company’s profits. Two of them were convicted.

I have also prosecuted a serving police officer for defrauding the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. The case, which was contested, only came to light when the defendant sought to appeal the level of an award for injuries he had sustained whilst on duty. Having said that he hadn’t made any earlier claims to the Authority, it turned out that he had.


I have experience of defending in cases involving professionals. These include :

(a) A disbarred, bankrupt, 80-year old barrister who, in his capacity as a “foreign law expert”, was charged with stealing his clients’ funds. The money, which had been paid into his own personal account, ought to have been put towards the purchase of a retirement home in Madeira. He drew down the funds and spent them in the discharge of his own debts and living expenses.

(b) The senior partner of a small firm of accountants who was involved in the theft of clients’ funds;

(c) A sole practitioner solicitor accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. As a favour to a long-standing lay client, who became one of his co-accused, he drafted so-called “retraction statements” in a robbery case where he knew that a victim had been robbed and that the witnesses were only making their statements under duress. The trial judge decided that the motivation had, largely, been to ensure the continued flow of new work from his co-accused who knew a lot of people who needed the services of a criminal lawyer.

(d) A solicitor who was accused, together with his parents and brothers, with mortgage fraud.

Cases

R v Smith and others [2003]

A five-handed conspiracy to rob security guards in the Greater London area that was heard at the Old Bailey. Four of the accused pleaded guilty.





R v Okedina and others [2005]

A three-handed benefits’ fraud that involved an extremely complex series of fraudulent identities. It was charged as a conspiracy. All three accused, ultimately, pleaded guilty.




R v Anscombe and others [2005]

This was a four-handed conspiracy case to defraud an 80-year old man who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. The victim’s life savings were stolen and then, when these had all gone, he was persuaded to sell his own home when he did not have the mental capacity to enter into such a contract. An 80-year old solicitor was in the dock, as he had facilitated the so-called “sale” of the victim’s home by acting as the “tame advisor” to the victim.



R v Messitt [2006]

Robberies of elderly ladies, walking alone, at night. An unusual case in that the defendant not only said he wasn’t involved, he actually named three of his friends whom he said could have been responsible. They all had numerous previous convictions, but denied any involvement in the robberies. In order to rebut the defence that had been raised, the Crown called the defendant’s “friends” as prosecution witnesses.


Most recently, I have prosecuted the following cases, albeit alone :

R v Guider [2006]

A charge of death by dangerous driving. The defendant knocked down and killed a female pedestrian who had been standing next to a car, from which she had just alighted, in a quiet residential road, at night. He was not drunk and had not been speeding. The case against him was put on the basis that he had failed to keep a proper look out and was also driving on the wrong side of the road. The defendant was later involved in another fatal road traffic accident, only 7 months later. This raised difficult questions about whether to make a “bad character” application.


R v Owoola and others [2006]

A three-handed conspiracy to rob that arose out of a series of seven armed car-jackings in the Greater London area.