Andrew is a criminal barrister with a speciality in fighting heavy-weight and difficult cases.
Andrew has regularly been instructed on lengthy and complex homicide cases across the country. These include drive-by shootings, gangland killings, baby killings, and road traffic deaths.
Andrew has also been instructed to act in difficult and emotionally charged sex cases. This would include being instructed to act grooming, historic sex offences involving family members, and stranger rape cases involving complex DNA evidence. In this field of sex work Andrew has also been instructed on cases where the offending has been conducted online. This includes a recent case where an offender created an AI programme to assist in carrying out internet based unlawful sexual activity.
Andrew was also acted in the largest prosecution involving human tracking under the Modern Slavery Act, 2015. In particular, the cases involved a criminal gang who were befriending vulnerable polish nationals in Poland and made them promises of a better life in the UK. They would then transport these persons to the UK where they would be locked in houses and exploited to work in servitude for the gang to make money from them.
A particular area of note is that Andrew has acted in many cases involving the supply of drugs on a commercial scale. This has led to him developing a substantial expertise in dealing with telephone and EnCro Chat evidence, cuckooing, county-lines gangs, and the use financial means to conceal the flow of drug money.
In that connection, Andrew has also been instructed in a number of firearms cases over the years, which has led to him developing a detailed knowledge of the law and in interpreting and challenging the evidence from expert firearms examiners.
Andrew has been instructed in cases of fraud, theft, and money laundering. This has ranged from cases of shop theft to dishonesty which has causes financial looses of over £10 million pounds.
He has acted to contest closure notices and restraint orders.
Having been instructed as sole or led junior for many years, Andrew now is more frequently instructed as leading counsel.
Andrew’s main concern is to deliver a professional and effective service to his clients and to ensure their interests are protected.
Cases of note:
Murder
R v DH – a violent stabbing involving a defence of both self-defence and loss of control which was based on PTSD
R v SA – a drive-by shooting gangland revenge attack involving nine defendants. The cases involved expert evidence and legal argument on the admissibility of IQ evidence.
Serious Sexual Offences
R v AS – a Rotherham Grooming cases in which eight defendants were facing historic allegations of abusing vulnerable teenagers from damaged backgrounds who were living in care. The case involved substantial cross-examination of historic matters through the section 28 procedure.
R v AS – family rape case which involved a three-week trial in which a number of family members claimed to have been abused by the defendant when they were growing up.
Modern Slavery
R v MB – this case referred to above, involved over one hundred complainants giving evidence. It lasted five months and was significantly complex because there were multiple different allegations against the defendants. It was very high profile and featured in a BBC Panorama documentary.
Drugs
R v K – an encrochat case in which the defendant was part of gang who imported over 250 kilos of controlled drugs into the UK. They then distributed these drugs across the UK. The case concerned again the admissibility of encrochat evidence. The gang were also importing firearms into the UK and exporting them to the Republic of Ireland.
Firearms
R v SL – a firearms case in which the prosecution case was challenged on the basis that their expert, in order to make a recovered firearm discharge a bullet, had heavily modified the cartridges to fit into the chamber.
Dishonesty
R v DY – an ex-employee who, acting as an agent, charged a secret fee to his company’s clients that they had to pay for a contract to be agreed with his employer. He then paid part of this secret fee to his contact on the other side of the deal. This was a private prosecution. The losses were alleged to have been over one million pounds caused to the employer.
R v TT – BT copper theft. A gang posing as BT workers using a BT van and a cable winch would open up manhole covers and steal hundreds of meters of redundant copper cable. They would then launder this stolen cable in the criminal underworld.
Police corruption
R v DW – an officer of the flying squad was alleged to have operated a prostitution syndicate in his private time.
Professional Memberships
Criminal Bar Association
R v I and Otrs, 2017 Southwark Crown Court
Lengthy multi-handed trial involved in the organised theft of vehicles valued in the region of £1.2 million. Defendants used cloned car keys, false number plates, forged vehicle documentation, surveillance of targets and hi-tech computer technology to steal luxury vehicles. The case was reported in the Daily Mail.
R v M - A led junior in a brutal murder case in which the defence pleaded loss of control.
R v I - Appeared as junior alone in a lengthy kidnap and blackmail case.
R v W - A led junior in a particularly savage killing of a homeless man.
R v B - Appeared as junior alone in a case in which it was alleged the complainant was trafficked into the UK and forced to work as a prostitute. The case involved thousands of pages of telephone evidence that substantially undermined the complainant’s allegations.
R v W - Rape
R v L - A firearms case in which the gun in question was unable to discharge a bullet without the police firearms expert manufacturing special ammunition for it.
R v K - Anonymous witness case. The Defendant was alleged to be the black male robbing the Malaysian student in the infamous London Riots footage.
R v T - Successfully defended in a case involving a gang of East London villains who were alleged to have posed as BT workers in stolen vans and equipment, removed copper cable from manholes, cut it up, and sold it for scrap.
R v L - Offensive weapon case. Secured an acquittal in 60 seconds.
R (C) v Stratford Youth Court [2012] All ER (D) 87 (Jan) - Judicial Review in relation when a judicial tribunal may depart from a previous sentencing indication
LL.B (Hons) LL.M