Neil is a committed advocate who practices in all aspects of serious criminal law.

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Neil has been instructed as leading junior and junior alone in a range of offences including murder, gang-related offending, drug importation and supply, and fraud.

He additionally accepts instructions in regulator matters. He has acted on behalf of the NMC, a well as the Football Association in both safeguarding and disciplinary matters.

Neil is able to distil complicated arguments and make them accessible to client and court alike. He is known for a friendly and approachable manner, with a knack for putting even difficult clients at ease.

He has served as an elected member of the Bar Council and on the executive committee of the Criminal Bar Association. He is particularly technically adept and was a long-standing member of the IT panel of the Bar Council.

Outside of the law, Neil was a non-executive director on the governing body of NHS Bexley Clinical Commissioning Group. For a long-time he was the player-manager for a Sunday league football team until age and children caught up with him.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) Psychology – Lincoln College, Oxford University
Graduate Diploma in Law – BPP School of Law (London)
Bar Vocational Course – BPP School of Law (London)
Lord Justice Holker Award (Gray’s Inn)
Public Access qualified

Recent Cases

2022 – R v HT and others – 1st defendant in a shooting murder against the background of a long-standing feud between two groups

2022 – R v EL and others – leading junior in a conspiracy to supply drug case involving aspects of modern slavery

 2022 – R v MB – led junior for a defendant in a gang-related attempted murder at a

 2021 – R v AD – led junior for a defendant in a gang-related shooting murder

 2021 – R v DB – led junior for a defendant in a stabbing murder against a background of significant mental health issues

 2021 – R v CT – led junior for a defendant in a gang-related shooting murder involving allegations of county lines drug dealing

 

Notable cases

 R v F – led junior. A case of murder involving complex issues of mental health and insanity

R v N – led junior. A money laundering cases involving frauds committed across multiple jurisdictions

R v H – led junior. Attempted murder and violent disorder covering a number events in three locations over the course of a day

EFRS v SMH – led junior. A large-scale fire following an act of arson which led to the death of 3 individuals

R v C and L – led junior. A case of attempted murder using sulphuric acid

R v W & W (Cayman Islands) – led junior. The case focused on corruptly obtained contracts for IT services. During the course of the trial, evidence was heard from a former Government minister, high-ranking civil servants and senior staff at the Health Service. The case had links to numerous jurisdictions and also touched on the FIFA corruption allegations

R v S (Cayman Islands) – led junior. A high-profile fraud case involving the former President of the local University

R v Q – junior alone. A case of attempted murder following a stabbing

Serious Fraud Office v C – a bribery and corruption case involving payments to foreign public officials to win contracts for the printing of currency

Serious Fraud Office v P – a USD 500 million hedge fund fraud where artificial swap trades were constructed to inflate the value of the fund

R v L and others – grievous bodily harm and assisting an offender offences following a gang-related turf war

R v M and others – a grievous bodily harm offence where the complainant, a paranoid schizophrenic, was stabbed in the chest causing life threatening injuries

R v A and others – a large-scale fight in the middle of a busy public road, ending with six people needing hospital treatment including one with multiple stab wounds

R v H – Possession with intent to supply class A drugs where the defendant claimed he had been kidnapped and forced to commit the offences. Complex legal arguments around the applicability of the Modern Slavery Act and its relevance in considering the interests of justice to continue the prosecution

R v R – an attempted rape involving a stranger abducted from the street. The defendant had unusual and complex communication difficulties requiring a range of expert evidence to establish he was unfit to stand trial

R v H – Multiple counts of fly-tipping, breach of duty of care and forgery. The waste included bonded and unbonded asbestos, with the total waste weighing several hundred tonnes

R v S – Offences of fraudulent trading under the Companies Act, and misconduct during winding up under the Insolvency Act

R v S (Court of Appeal) – an application for leave to appeal against sentence in a conspiracy to supply cocaine case involving 5kg of drugs and an undercover operation lasting three months

R v R (Court of Appeal) – a successful appeal against sentence in a case in which the defendant made admissions to dealing drugs in a pre-sentence report but had pleaded guilty to simple possession

Professional Associations

Criminal Bar Association
South Eastern Circuit
Gray’s Inn

Fraud Lawyers Association