In July 2018 he represented businessman James Wilmott in the Crown Court at Cardiff; he was alleged to have threatened a taxi driver with a shotgun but was acquitted in 45 minutes by the jury (report here). In the past 18 months he has appeared in a number of cases involving mental health issues and diminished responsibility. In 2020, with previous experience of doing the same, he has represented two non-English speaking Polish defendants charged in separate murder trials.
in 2017 he represented Mark Ennis, charged with three others of murdering a rival drug dealer in Rhyl. Despite admitting being a career drug dealer and getting out of a car with the co-accused, two of whom had knives and stabbed the three rivals in a van, the defendant was acquitted of two section 18 assaults upon 2 of the men and was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter in relation to the front passenger who was stabbed 22 times. He has also represented a 16-year-old defendant charged with the murder of his Mother's neighbour. He fractured the deceased's skull with a wooden pole and stabbed him twice to the heart, but was acquitted of murder and manslaughter on the basis of self-defence. He successfully prosecuted Phillip Daniels for the murder by a single stab wound of a love rival, and obtained a sentence of just 6 years' detention for the manslaughter and assault of an alleged drug rival; that 15 year old defendant had been charged with murder.
In 2016 Nigel successfully represented Stephen Clarke in a very substantial three-week confiscation case (report here) and prosecuted Kandyce Downer in the high profile murder of 18-month-old Keegan Downer, to whom she was special guardian (report here). In June he obtained an acquittal in a pipe-bomb conspiracy for Jason Buckley at the Birmingham Crown Court (report here) and in August an acquittal for Stuart Shears, charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, blackmail, assault and perverting the course of justice (report here). Nigel represented John Hore in the Court of Appeal in one of a series of "Post-Jogee" test cases, leading the submissions about exceptional leave to appeal out of time where murder convictions were based on the old law of joint enterprise (judgment here).
In 2015 he was successful in the murder trials of Christopher Spendlove (see report here) and Wayne Erskine (see report here) and the serious assault case of Ryan Melia (see report here).
He has a proven track record in the most serious of criminal cases and is available to help now. He is regularly recommended in the leading legal directories for his work in court (recent recommendations are at the bottom of the page). He has been involved in many high-profile criminal cases, including having the case against his client dismissed in the “Millennium Dome Fraud” and representing the only defendant to be acquitted of conspiracy to defraud and fraudulent trading in the “Lord of Fraud” Boiler Room Fraud. He appeared in the trials of the racist killing of Anthony Walker in Huyton, the "Gangland" shooting of Michael Wright at the East Lancashire Road Retail Park and the murder of mother-of-three Lucy Hargreaves.
Nigel has also in recent times obtained Not Guilty verdicts in a gangland shooting murder with three associated attempted murders (Ijah Lavelle-Moore) and in a case of the alleged murder of a 65-year-old woman during a burglary in her own home (Christopher Curran). He has appeared in terrorism cases and successfully appeared in the Court Martial for an Irish Guardsman charged with the manslaughter of an Iraqi Looter in Basra.
Nigel is well regarded for his work in confiscation cases where his IT skills can help to analyse and present the most complex financial evidence to his clients' advantage. He represented John Conroy in the confiscation proceedings of Operation Inertia, a large scale MTIC fraud involving contra-trading. The prosecution claimed that the benefit was £90m and that there were substantial hidden assets, but the eventual order was for benefit and assets of just £200,000. See the article about that case here. In late 2017 he successfully applied to vary a restraint order which allowed a business with a £50m per annum turnover to trade.
Nigel also has a niche practice in civil fraud and cybercrime. He has specialist knowledge of digital currencies and has lectured on the subject.
Until recently you needed to instruct a solicitor to access Nigel’s services, but now you can come to him directly, cutting out unnecessary duplication and costs where appropriate. However if your case requires a solicitor’s input, Nigel can put you in touch with a network of excellent and highly regarded lawyers to help.
Nigel accepts work on both a private and legally aided basis.
Nigel appears in courts all over the country and is prepared to travel to wherever you are to give you the help you need. He appears in quasi-criminal cases too, such as Civil “POCA” cases and disciplinary tribunals.
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