Keystone Law

Fraud: white-collar crime.

Mark is both a civil and criminal litigation specialist who conducts the majority of his work in the area of financial services, often against the state, in particular HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority. Many of his cases conclude in the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights and involve real points of principle. Mark has been involved in many notable and interesting cases since the establishment of the SFO and he is often called upon by the media to offer comment on matters of national interest. He travels abroad regularly to meet with clients who are unable to travel to the UK. Mark’s areas of expertise are criminal defence of white collar fraud, civil prosecution and defence of white collar fraud, corporate conflicts, contentious employment matters (defence and prosecution), advising employers on detecting and dealing with frauds, fraud prevention techniques, tax investigations and enquiries, extradition law and challenging police search warrants. Mark’s key achievements include: (i) early fraud trials such as Blue Arrow; (ii) long running dispute between Octav Botnar, Nissan UK and the Inland Revenue; (iii) Dame Shirley Porter, leader of Westminster City Council; (iv) commenced rare private prosecution following a death on Everest; (v) acting to resist the controversial and unpopular extradition of NatWest Three; (vi) challenges to high profile police search warrants eg Harry Redknapp; (vii) the expenses row in the Houses of Parliament, an appeal to the Privy Council from the Court of Appeal in Bermuda and litigation concerning BTA Bank.

Trained TSW/Dechert, qualified 1982. TSW/Dechert 1980-89; Jeffrey Green Russell, 1989-2009; Keystone Law, 2009.