Year of Call
1988Areas of practice
Prosecution, Defence, Regulatory, Property / construction, Direct Access
“He is an excellent advocate who is incredibly thorough, providing advice on all aspects of the case in which he is briefed... very good client care and empathy dealing with clients and family in a compassionate way. ”
Biography
Paul is a practising door tenant. He is a very able, hard working and experienced barrister. He has expertise in prosecuting and defending a wide range of criminal matters, and also in regulatory matters and landlord and tenant cases.
Paul has received judicial, professional and lay client praise for his work. He creates excellent rapport with clients and provides a first class service. He has a reputation as a good lawyer and is experienced at dealing with cases with high levels of disclosure, particularly with mobile phone evidence. Paul regularly appears in Crown Courts and the Court of Appeal throughout the country.
Paul has lectured to the Crown Prosecution Service, City of London Police and the Medicines Healthcare Regulatory Agency on a wide range of topics.
Crime (prosecution)
Paul is a very experienced prosecutor. He is a Grade 4 prosecutor for the CPS, and is on the RASSO, fraud and serious crime group advocate panels. He has been briefed as a leading junior counsel for both the defence and prosecution in a wide variety of serious cases. He has been nominated as an “A” list counsel on the Attorney General’s (Crime) Panel of Advocates.
Paul prosecutes a wide range of criminal matters including cases of violence, serious assaults, serious sexual offences, high profile drugs and firearm cases and allegations of dishonesty. He has also been briefed in a variety of frauds and is very good at forensic analysis of the disclosure involved.
Paul is on the RASSO panel and has experience of dealing with cases including serial child rape, historic sexual offences, family incest and rape at gun point.
Crime (defence)
Paul has experience of defending a wide range cases including murder, serious assaults and other allegations of violence. He has dealt with high profile drugs and firearm cases including multi-handed cases, drug supply and conspiracy cases and cases involving gang related violence.
Paul has expertise in dealing with allegations of dishonesty, and has been briefed in a variety of frauds such as large scale banking consumer and gambling fraud, counterfeit credit card factories, credit card skimming and substantial City of London conspiracies.
Regulatory
In addition to his criminal practice, Paul is experienced at dealing with regulatory matters and he has prosecuted on behalf of the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency. He has dealt with cases against doctors, chemists and dentists. His regulatory work includes cases concerning the Medicines Acts and associated European Directives.
Property and construction
Paul deals with landlord and tenant matters, primarily taking and defending possession claims. He has experience of both residential and commercial property and of acting for landlords and tenants. Paul is clear and concise in his advocacy and very effective at representing his clients.
Instruct
For criminal and regulatory matters please contact Alex Coomber.
For landlord and tenant work please contact Rob Johnstone.
Notable Cases
R v B (2025): Successfully defended a man at trial accused of matrimonial rape, against a background where his ex-wife was seeking to deny him access to his young child, make him pay excessive child maintenance, and take possession of the matrimonial home.
R v M (2024): Successfully defended a man in a private prosecution by a family member alleging fraud in a dispute over the settlement of a will. Paul challenged the evidence at a preliminary hearing before the trial, successfully persuading the judge to dismiss the case.
R v A (2024): Successfully defended a man at trial accused of serious wounding with a knife in the context of a family dispute.
R v R (2024): Successfully defended a man at trial accused of 2 rapes against different female complainants that he met on dating sites. The police had wrongly given each complainant personal details about the accused's past in breach of his rights.
R v N (2024): Successfully defended a man charged in a conspiracy to defraud in connection with the Grenfell Tower fire in London.
R v L (2019): Prosecuted a serial child rapist.
R v B, (2019): Prosecuted a case of historic, paedophilic abuse.
R v D and Others (2017): gang related drug supply and joint possession of a loaded Uzi sub machine gun.
R v A and Others (2015): Leading junior in multi million cross-territorial bank card skimming conspiracy with disclosure of over 75,000 documents. The investigating detectives from the City of London Police were commended by the trial judge for their tenacious, painstaking work.
R v S and Others (2014): Leading junior defending in a multiple bank ram-raid conspiracy valued in excess of £1 million.
R v K [2008] EWCA Crim 2817, Court of Appeal: The trial Judge should direct the jury on the effect of breaches of disclosure rules by investigators from HM Customs and Excise. The case is cited in Archbold 2018 12-80.
R v. M [2004] Crim.L.R. 373, Court of Appeal: Authority in rape cases on the definition of “sexual activity” and Section 41 YJCE Act 1999. Conviction successfully appealed in Court of Appeal. The case is cited in Archbold 2018 8-249.
R v C, 2003: Computer based denial of service attack on the main frame server of the Port of Houston, Texas, USA. All river transport brought to a halt. Joint FBI and Metropolitan Police investigation. Defendant suffered from Asperger’s syndrome.
R v R [1998] Crim.L.R. 440 Court of Appeal: Meaning of “fear” within section 23 CJA 1988. The case is cited in Archbold 2018 11-22.