Barrister

Sam has experience in conducting the most serious and factually complex cases, multi-handed and otherwise, as both led junior and junior alone. These include, but are not limited to, matters of murder, manslaughter, s.18 GBH, firearms, fraud, money laundering, historic sexual assault and large scale drugs.

Recent and ongoing instructions include:

R v B & Anor. (Central Criminal Court) – Led junior on an indictment alleging murder, involving the death of a 2 year old. The Crown’s case is predicated almost entirely on expert medical evidence, including paediatric neuropathology.

R v N (Central Criminal Court) – Led junior on an indictment alleging murder, in which the defendant was charged almost a year after the crown seemingly accepted what was advanced by the defendant in interview, namely that he was acting in self-defence. Involves issues of autrefois convict.

R v T (Central Criminal Court) – Led junior on an indictment alleging murder, involving the underlying issue of gang related activity and associated intelligence.

R v H & Ors (Harrow Crown Court) – Led junior on an indictment alleging attempted murder, s.18 wounding with intent, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, criminal damage and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, following a trial lasting 6 weeks at Harrow Crown Court. In a ‘cut throat’ defence, where all 5 defendants gave evidence, Sam’s client was the only defendant to be acquitted of the attempted murder and firearms offences arising from that incident. The case centred around the acquisition and use of a pistol and shotgun in two separate incidents. The Crown’s case relied on evidence of the complainant, who was shot at point blank range, cell site expert evidence, ANPR and CCTV evidence and ran to pages of evidence measured in the hundreds of thousands.

R v A & Ors. (Southwark Crown Court) – Led junior, representing the first defendant in a 7 handed, 10-week, multi-million pound conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. The case has generated a vast amount of served evidence, in the sum of c.160,000 pages, and involves transactions over a number of different jurisdictions with an indictment period covering a number of years for a total of 21 indicted defendants.

R v A & Ors. (Oxford Crown Court) – Junior alone for the first defendant in this armed robbery conspiracy, involving extensive phone and cell site evidence.

R v B & Ors. (Snaresbrook Crown Court) – Junior alone for the first defendant in this conspiracy to supply firearms.

TS v M & Anor. (Ipswich Crown Court) – Junior alone in this 22 count, multi-million pound trading standards fraud.

R v H & Ors. (Southwark Crown Court) – Led junior in a multi-million pound, contested POCA matter. Two counsel was granted at the conclusion of the trial, for POCA proceedings, indicating the level of complexity. The defendant’s benefit figure was reduced from almost £1m to £30,000, with an available amount of £5,000.

R v O & Ors. (Snaresbrook Crown Court) – Lead Junior in this conspiracy to possess firearms and cause s.18 GBH, arising from a revenge attack at a rave, following an attempted shooting from a rival gang. Extensive issues as to bad character and dates case for which the defendant was previously NFA’d or acquitted, along with cell site and phone analysis.

Operation Fordbridge – Instructed by the FCA as Disclosure Counsel in this dual-track regulatory and criminal investigation of Natwest, concerning breaches of the MLR and the FCA’s handbook, namely regarding failures following the laundering of hundreds of millions of pounds through the bank.

Project E: Instructed, through a firm which is an ABS, by a large multinational company to conduct an internal investigation into foreign bribery and corruption, in contemplation of arbitration and litigation in the Commercial Court of a foreign jurisdiction.

R v CMF & Anor. (Inner London Crown Court) – Junior alone for the first defendant in this multi-handed money-laundering matter arising from the investigation into a Chinese Organised Criminal Network, responsible for ‘smishing’ fraud and ‘social engineering’ fraud.

R v T & Ors. (Maidstone Crown Court) – Junior alone in this multi-handed police courier fraud, in which the suspects are said to have made contact with vulnerable individuals, purporting to be the police and arranging for a ‘courier’ to collect bank cards from the victims for the purposes of impending criminal litigation.

R v C & Ors. (Woolwich Crown Court) – Junior alone, representing the first defendant in a 9 handed, 8-week, conspiracy to kidnap, blackmail and falsely imprison. The case against the defendants is multi-faceted and includes cell site, call schedules, CCTV, ANPR and forensic evidence.

R v M & Ors. (Inner London Crown Court) – Junior alone, represented the first defendant in a 4 handed, 6-week, multiple-count conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and participation in the activities of an organised crime group (s.45 of the Serious Crime Act 2015). Prosecuted by both Queen’s Counsel and Junior Counsel, the Crown’s case, which ran to c.142,000 pages, involved CCTV, ANPR, cell site and call data, forensic evidence and expert evidence re gang related activity.

R v S (Cambridge Crown Court) –  Instructed as led junior in this matter concerning manslaughter.

R v C & Ors. (Snaresbrook Crown Court) – Led junior in a 5 handed conspiracy to sell firearms matter, which lasted 8 weeks and was the only defendant to be acquitted. The Crown’s case was built almost entirely on cell site, call schedule data and ANPR, along with contested expert evidence as to fingerprints. Sam took the cross-examination of the cell site expert. This case generated c.24,500 pages of evidence.

R v K & Anor. (Basildon Crown Court) – Junior alone in this multi-handed kidnap. The Crown’s case included the use of CCTV, ANPR, eye witnesses, call data and cell site evidence.

R v C (Peterborough Crown Court) – Led junior in this matter of historic sexual assault, in respect of an ex-premiership football coach and scout, with 18 complainants and an indictment period spanning some 40 years. The Crown’s case was based, in part, on the expert evidence of a doctor in the field of ‘maturisation’ and the ‘Tanner Scale’.

R v R (Kingston Crown Court) – Junior alone in a matter of wounding with intent, which was concluded with a successful submission of no case to answer, prior to the conclusion of the Crown’s case.

ICO v SEC Elections (trading as Cambridge Analytica) – Instructed by Cambridge Analytica and SCL Elections Ltd in this high profile case brought by the Information Commissioner’s Office, involving the investigation and subsequent criminal proceedings, following the complaint made by professor Carroll and the failure of Cambridge Analytica to respond to the ICO’s enforcement notice.

PTIOs v M (Court of Arbitration for Sport) – Professional tennis player’s appeal to CAS of a lifetime ban for match fixing and spot betting.

R v O (Court of Appeal, Criminal Division) – Junior alone in an appeal against conviction in this firearms case, concerning ‘fresh evidence’ relating to the possession of a sawn-off shotgun.

R v Y (Court of Appeal, Criminal Division) – Junior alone in an appeal against conviction which raises a jurisdictional issue as to the Court of Appeal’s power to deal with a s.51 Scheduled offence, which was concluded and sentenced in the Crown Court.

Sam prides himself on meticulous attention to detail in case preparation and excellent client-care skills. This attention to detail and the ability to put clients at ease at an early stage of proceedings, means that he is regularly instructed in cases involving complex issues and vulnerable witnesses or defendants. Sam is also cleared to the highest level of government security clearance, resulting in instructions from the Government Legal Department, involving highly sensitive material.

Sam has particular experience in white-collar crime, notably bribery & corruption, and is listed as preferred counsel by the Financial Conduct Authority, with whom he is regularly instructed. He has previously been seconded to the Serious Fraud Office. By reason of his experience in multi-jurisdictional investigations, Sam has an excellent grasp of bribery & corruption law, both pre and post UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. As such, he is comfortable with complex financial and factual matters and can advise both companies and individuals across a range of financial regulatory work, from assisting in the drafting and implementation of financial crime policy and compliance programmes, to representation in enforcement proceedings brought by regulators and prosecutors.

Sam has worked on the defence of a large and complex bribery & corruption case (SFO v Alstom & Ors). He conducted internal investigations in the UK and across Europe, for the purposes of self-reporting to the US DOJ. Sam also worked on another large and complex bribery & corruption case (SFO v Rolls-Royce Plc); a domestic and overseas joint investigation brought under pre-Bribery Act charges.

Before embarking on a career at the Bar, Sam worked in both investment and relationship management at the UK’s oldest, family run, private bank; C. Hoare & Co.

Sam is Direct Access qualified and accepts instructions directly from the public and business alike.

The Honourable Society of Middle Temple

Middle Temple Young Barristers Association

South Eastern Circuit

Criminal Bar Association

Young Fraud Lawyers Association

BPTC – Very Competent

LLB Law (Hons) 2:1