This Firm has been involved in a number of high profile complex and serious cases, the most notable of which you can read about below.
The Firm has acted on behalf of Defendants in relation to SFO prosecutions, a substantial number of serious fraud cases, prosecutions by the Special Case Work Unit of the Crown Prosecution Service, large scale Importation and Possession with Intent to Supply Drugs cases and the whole gambit of serious cases from Murders to Road Traffic matters over many years.
4 handed murders of 16-year-old in Poplar East London Snaresbrook Crown Court
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26995209
R –v Chowdhury (Not Guilty Murder, Guilty Manslaughter) Death of an 8-year-old child whilst living with her mother and friend. Acquitted of murder but convicted of Manslaughter by a majority of 10-2 after deliberating for more than 31 hours. In addition, we appealed our client’s sentence, and it was reduced by the Court of Appeal from 13 years to 10 years.
The case has been reported widely in the media, including by the BBC, the Guardian, The Independent, The Mirror and the Evening Standard.
This firm represented Mr Michael Steele in his Appeal, following a successful referral from the CCRC, against conviction for triple murder in the case that was commonly known as the “Essex Boys Murders”.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/22/ukcrime.ukguns
This Firm represented Mr Jolie in the Court of Appeal following conviction for possession of an offensive weapon. Again, this case was widely reported on the issue of possession of offensive weapons and is reported in Archbold as it opened up the limited circumstances in the defence of “lawful excuse”.
https://www.lccsa.org.uk/r-v-leroy-jolie-2003/
We represented the “Headmistress” of a South London School who defrauded money from the local council. This was made into a TV drama and with input from this firm with the client’s consent gave a very sympathetic account of our client’s actions and motives.
We successfully clarified the Law on the offence of Affray and quashed our client’s conviction at the same time. The Court of Appeal initially rejected our arguments but granted permission to go to the House of Lords where those arguments succeeded.
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/criminal-law/35001.article
This was a 3-month trial at The Old Bailey following a gangland execution in Romford
We represented our client, a professional footballer, in the first ever prosecution under The Bribery Act 2010 at Birmingham Crown Court. We subsequently advised him in his appeal to the FA to enable him to be allowed to coach in England and Wales.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/apr/16/moses-swaibu-make-a-difference
We represented the only suspect not charged with Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice in this widely reported case. Our client PL was present with all others charged but at the police station he was the only one of 7 who answered questions and denied any involvement. He was the only one of those 7 not charged.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/mar/13/rebekah-brooks-and-husband-arrested-phone-hacking
We were instructed by this Defendant after he had been convicted of Murder and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison. Within 12 months we had successfully appealed his conviction for Murder (his original Solicitors had not properly argued against the Crown’s Bad Character application and had not obtained relevant expert evidence on DNA) and secured a re-trial resulting in our client’s acquittal (which as is usual went unreported unlike his original conviction).
A VAT carousel fraud to the value of £14 million. Following conviction, the client was ordered to pay a Confiscation Order in excess of £650,000. Following enforcement proceedings an application for a Certificate of Inadequacy was made securing the client bail and reducing the Confiscation Order to £100,000.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/man-in-huge-vat-scam-gets-8-year-a26688/
Part of a £140 million VAT carousel fraud. There were over 30,000 pages of used material served and this was a complex and a serious fraud matter. It was also one of the highest value VAT carousel frauds prosecuted.
The client was charged with murder together with co-defendants. Following the discovery of unused material, we were able to put forward a positive defence that the client had already left the general area where the murder had taken place prior to the murder being committed. This was despite the defendant's telephone still showing up as in the area, the victim’s blood on the back seat of his car and the convicted Co-Accused calling our client’s telephone minutes before the shooting. The client was acquitted of murder although a Co-Defendant was convicted.
fraud value £85 million (said to be the largest mortgage fraud ever investigated by Met police). It took nearly 10 years from arrest to acquittal, but acquittal secured
Conspiracy to defraud. Multi million pound sophisticated "identity fraud " on a national and international scale involving multiple defendants and visa frauds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8081354.stm
Represented the defendant Dano Sonnex in the widely publicised case of the murder of the two French students in South London.