Foundry Chambers.
Ellis Sareen’s criminal practice centres on fraud, proceeds of crime, and corporate crime, where he prosecutes and defends. He also acts in civil fraud and commercial cases, in civil actions against the police, in civil proceeds of crime litigation, in regulatory prosecutions, in some fields of public law, and for the defence in general criminal cases involving violence, drugs or disorder. As leading or sole advocate he has conducted trials in the King’s Bench Division and the Chancery Division of the High Court, as well as in Crown Courts throughout England and Wales.
He has appeared in the Court of Appeal and the Divisional Court to argue legal points concerning extradition (Balint v Czech Republic [2012] 1 WLR 244), criminal compensation (Beaumont [2015] 1 Cr App R (S) 1), abuse of process by escalating charges (Govorusa [2018] EWCA Crim 2841 – “we pay tribute to the careful written argument … supplemented attractively in oral argument“), venire de novo (Bahbahani [2018] QB 1099), joint bank accounts (Thakor [2020] EWCA Crim 541), the legal effect of impersonation at trial (R (Bahbahani) v Ealing MC [2020] QB 487 – “Mr Sareen mounts a powerful argument“), prisoner transfer (R (Neville) v SoS for Justice [2021] EWHC 957 (Admin) – “attractively presented submissions“), and variation of confiscation orders (R v Blenkiron [2022] EWCA Crim 669). Cases in which he has been instructed have advanced the law of costs in both civil (May v Wavell Group Ltd [2017] 12 WLUK 679) and criminal (R (Bahbahani) v Ealing MC [2020] QB 487) proceedings.
He is often instructed to advise victims of crime, or third parties to criminal or civil litigation, including corporations who have suffered or who suspect fraud, recipients of witness summonses, recipients of production orders and disclosure orders, and third parties in receivership, forfeiture and freezing applications.
Prior to coming to the bar, he worked for over a decade as an information technology consultant in the UK and abroad, mainly in the financial sector. Many of the cases in which he is instructed have a technical angle, and he has a track record of successfully challenging apparently conclusive expert evidence in this field.
He is registered with the Bar Council as a public access barrister. Where appropriate, he can be instructed directly by a member of the public without the need to go through a solicitor.
Barstow Prize
LanguagesFrench German
Bar Vocational Course, Inns of Court School of Law – Outstanding Graduate Diploma in Law, City University MA (Cantab)