St John's Buildings

St John's Buildings

Region Area

Barristers

John Oates

John Oates

Work Department

Crime

Position

John has a considerable Criminal practice with an inevitable bias toward Prosecuting and covering the widest range of Criminal work from the most minor Road Traffic offences through to the most serious of Crimes. He has a particular interest in fraud stemming from the time when he was the instructing Solicitor in the Greenall Whitley conspiracy as long ago as the 80’s, and which interest he maintains at the Bar.

John is equally at home defending in which his lengthy experience of prosecuting and intimate knowledge of the Police is a considerable advantage and he applies the same tenacity to Defending as he does to Prosecuting.

Career

John began his legal career as a Solicitor. After leaving school he served 5 year Articles of Clerkship with Ponsonby’s Solicitors of Oldham before being admitted a Solicitor in 1973. He then joined the then West Riding of Yorkshire County Prosecuting Solicitors Office conducting Prosecutions both Criminal and administrative on behalf of the Police and Council regulatory authorities. He was appointed a Senior Prosecuting Solicitor in Sussex, and eventually become a Divisional Prosecuting Solicitor in Cheshire.

He left the Prosecution Service in 1987 and was pupil to Maurice Kay at Whitefriars Chambers before being called to the Bar the same year.

Memberships

Criminal Bar Association