Overview
Gary is a talented and dedicated barrister. His approach to cases is distinguished by its careful preparation and measured execution.
Gary is ranked in both Chambers and Partners (Band 1), and the Legal 500 (Tier 1) for his work in the field of POCA and Asset Forfeiture work.
His experience in complex financial crime and asset forfeiture has allowed Gary to develop his practice over the years.
Gary has experience of foreign criminal proceedings having been involved for many years with two high profile cases in Costa Rica. He frequently advises on multi-jurisdictional asset recovery cases.
His practice includes areas such as business crime, asset recovery and civil fraud, insolvency, and licensing.
Gary is fluent in Spanish.
Asset Forfeiture, Confiscation & Civil Fraud
Gary is a specialist in the field of asset forfeiture and confiscation. He is one of the leading experts on the enforcement of confiscation orders. In the modern world where assets are held worldwide, this is an area which regularly crosses borders. Gary advises in relation to international enforcement of confiscation orders. He appeared in the case of Moss, which is the leading authority on the recognition of confiscation orders in the European Union.
He has experience in applications to extend the moratorium period for both the applicant and respondent. This includes recent experience in relation to a large authorised payment institution that was subjected to repeated application to extend the moratorium period.
He regularly advises and represents enforcement receivers appointed both under POCA and previous legislation.
Gary appears for both the claimant and respondent in civil recovery proceedings brought under Part 5 of POCA. He appears on behalf of both applicants and respondents in cash forfeiture proceedings under POCA. He advises and appears for both the applicants and the respondents in relation to account freezing order. His approach in responding to these applications has secured the setting aside of the account freezing order.
He regularly advises companies and individuals that are facing condemnations proceedings or other issues with import and export regulations.
Business Crime & Financial Regulation
Business Crime
Gary has significant experience acting for clients, both prosecution and defence, in relation to large scale fraud, white-collar crime and a variety of financial crime cases.
Gary's business crime work dovetails with his asset recovery, confiscation and civil fraud work, which often involves technical points of law and financial detail.
He successfully represented a large money service business in its appeal against the cancellation of its registration under the Money Laundering Regulations. The money service business employed 62 individuals, had a network of around 270 agents and about 80,000 regular customers. There were over forty alleged breaches of the MLR during a two-year period. In that two-year period it transferred funds of almost £924m.
Sanctions
Gary regularly advises corporate clients in respect of the operation of the Sanctions Regime, including their reporting obligations. His advice frequently addresses the issue of compliance and the risk involved in proceedings with specific transactions.
Chancery & Commercial
Insolvency
Gary regularly advises on the interaction between Criminal Proceedings, Proceeds of Crime and Insolvency. He has lectured on both the criminal aspects of Corporate Insolvency and on “POCA and Insolvency”. He is currently instructed to apply for the leave of the court to pursue an application for an account forfeiture order in respect of the property of an insolvent company.
Gary now uses that experience in the commercial field and both advises and appears in insolvency proceedings.
He has experience of appearing for and advising the Trustee in Bankruptcy. He also has experience of advising companies and directors in corporate insolvency.
Criminal Defence
Gary has represented defendants throughout his career at the Bar. He has acted in the most serious of criminal cases including sexual offences, violence and the supply of drugs. Gary has also been led on cases involving allegations of murder, conspiracy to murder and appearing alone in relation to an attempted murder.
Criminal Prosecutions - Private & Public
Gary is an experienced criminal barrister. He is a Grade 3 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor and is on the approved CPS List of Proceeds of Crime advocates. Gary accepts instructions in relation Private Prosecutions.
Extradition & International
Gary has experience in international criminal cases having acted in a high profile case at the Tribunal of the First Judicial Circuit, South, in Costa Rica. He was part of an international defence team that successfully represented Ann Patton in relation to an allegation that she murdered her husband, the successful Wall Street trader John Bender. Gary is fluent in Spanish which enabled him to play an active part in the preparation as well as assisting the legal teams with interpreting legal documentation that formed the basis of the case. Click here to read the Daily Mail news article.
Gary continues to advise in relation to these complex proceedings and regularly travels to Costa Rica to provide assistance.
Gary is an experienced extradition practitioner. He was junior counsel for the third appellant Rozanski in the Supreme Court case of Pomiechowski and others.
Sanctions
Gary is part of our Sanctions team and accepts instructions in this practice area.
Gary regularly advises corporate clients in respect of the operation of the Sanctions Regime, including their reporting obligations. His advice frequently addresses the issue of compliance and the risk involved in proceedings with specific transactions.
Professional panel appointments
- Gary is on the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) panel of external counsel: (A Panel) Proceeds of Crime and International Assistance list.
- Gary is a Grade 3 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutor.
- Gary is on the approved CPS List of Proceeds of Crime advocates, Fraud and Serious Crime: All at Grade 3.
- Band C (10 years' call and above) appointed advocate for the General Dental Council (GDC).
Additional Information
Lectures, seminars and articles
- Editor of Mitchell Taylor and Talbot on Confiscation and the Proceeds of Crime.
- Freezing and confiscation under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement for the New Journal of European Criminal Law with Vania Costa Ramos.
- Gary regularly writes in Practical Law and for Lexis Nexis.
Gary provides lectures and seminars on a variety of subjects. He has recently covered the following subjects:
- Recent caselaw in the area of proceeds of crime.
- The Enforcement of Confiscation Orders.
- International Recognition of Confiscation Order Post Brexit
- Account Freezing Orders.
- A Webinar on Asset Tracing and Recovery with Jonathan Benton of Intelligent Sanctuary.
- Podcasts with Get Legally Speaking on Financial Crime, Account Forfeiture & Freezing Orders.
- Unexplained Wealth Orders.
- Tainted Gifts
- Criminal Aspects of Corporate Insolvency.
Gary is a member of the POCLA committee and appeared on the panel of experts at the 2023 POCLA Belfast forum.
Languages
- Fluent in Spanish.
Education
- Inns of Court Law School, Bar Vocational Course.
- University of Kent at Canterbury: English and Spanish Law.
- Year at Complutense University in Madrid: Diploma in Spanish Law.
Professional Memberships
- Grays Inn.
- Criminal Bar Association (CBA).
- South Eastern Circuit (SEC).
- Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association (POCLA).
- Fraud Lawyers Association (FLA).
Cases of Note
RECENT REPORTED CASES
Ahmed, Re [2024] EWHC 363 (Admin)
Asplin v Das UK Holdings Ltd [2023] EWHC 2321 (Admin)
Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands v Baybasin [2023] EWHC 1147 (Admin)
Serious Fraud Office v Litigation Capital Ltd, Bradshaw Ticehurst v Harbour Fund LLP [2022] EWHC 3053 (Comm)
Acted for the NCA in the recovery of gold weighing 104 kilos, which was discovered in June 2019 in the cargo section of a plane which had arrived from the Cayman Islands.
Brac Saajan Exchange Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2022] UKFTT 180 (TC)
ASSET RECOVERY, CIVIL FRAUD AND CONFISCATION
R v Benos [2019] EWCA Crim 1093
Complicated appeal against a confiscation order concerning the law of Wills and Gifts. Whether property was a conditional gift and if it is whether the failure to discharge the outstanding mortgage means the gift is void.
R v Moss [2019] 1 W.L.R. 6033
Junior Counsel in an appeal against a decision to issue a certificate allowing for the mutual recognition in Spain of the confiscation order.
R v Soni [2019] [2019] 4 W.L.R. 103
Gary acted for the Crown in an appeal against a wasted costs order made against a firm of solicitors acting in restraint proceedings and then committal proceedings for contempt of the restraint order. The appeal concerned important principle of law and was heard by the Lord Chief Justice.
Account Forfeiture Orders
Gary has successfully acted for high profile respondents to AFOs. Including the Managing Director of FMDQ Securities Exchange. Gary’s approach to the case prevented the grant of an AFO. A Deutsche Bank trader, where Gary designed a tactical approach to the case which persuaded the Applicant to set aside the AFO.
Superior Composite Structures LLC v Parrish [2015] EWHC 3688 (QB)
Acted for the Claimant, a US company in a trial of a claim for enforcement of a judgment worth over US$2m obtained in South Dakota. This case involved issues of fraud, principles of natural justice, public policy and Article 6 of the ECHR.
BUSINESS CRIME
R v Chavda
Prosecution Counsel in a complex pharmaceutical drug case involving significant money laundering and complex confiscation proceedings.
R v Hargreaves and Others
Represented one of the main defendant in a substantial trademark fraud
EXTRADITION AND INTERNATIONAL
Costa Rican Public Prosecutor v Ann Maxine Patton
Part of the Defence team successfully acting for the Defendant who was facing a charge of murder. The proceedings took place in Costa Rican and were conducted entirely in Spanish.
Rozanski v Regional Court 3 Penal Department Poland [2012] UKSC 20; (2012) 162 N.L.J. 749
Junior Counsel for the Third Appellant in a case involving consideration of the nature of the time limits in relation to extradition appeals.
CRIME
R v Yong Hong Lu
Represented the Defendant in relation to an allegation of laundering the proceeds of a vat fraud.
R v Scott
Junior Counsel for the defendant charged with unlawful act manslaughter by trapping the deceased in a loft.
