The Legal 500

Work Department

Business crime and criminal defence fraud.

Position

Ross has experience of working on many serious criminal cases. In recent years his practice has concentrated on serious fraud, acting for individuals and clients under investigation by the SFO, City of London Fraud Squad, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), and SOCA. Many of his cases have an international dimension. In the past 12 months his cases include: acting for a defendant in a multi-handed, multi-jurisdictional $100m boiler room fraud; acting in a high-profile case for a girl jointly charged with the killing of a man in Trafalgar Square; acting for one of 18 defendants charged by HMRC in a multimillion-pound conspiracy to cheat relating to both excise duty and VAT; acting for a defendant is charged with attempting to use forged US Treasury certificates to the value of $70m to defraud UK and Icelandic banks; acting for a large law firm under investigation by City of London fraud squad for a major sector-wide fraud in the personal injury industry; acting for one of 17 defendants charged with conspiracy to blackmail (this prosecution followed one of the largest investigations into animal rights protests in the UK and concerns protesters alleged to have conducted a six-year campaign of threats, intimidation and violence); acting for a BBC World Service journalist accused of administering a date rape drug to one of his colleagues and committing a serious sexual assault on her; acting in this jurisdiction for defendants facing trial in Spain for a conspiracy to import cocaine from South America with a street value in excess of €100m, seeking to challenge the release of covert intelligence from the UK to Spain before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in the UK; acting in this jurisdiction for clients residing in Thailand but being prosecuted in Spain as part of a huge money laundering case who are challenging a worldwide property freezing order under the Proceeds of Crime Act granted by the High Court against assets primarily held in Gibraltar; acting for the owners of several care homes, providing supported accommodation for vulnerable people under investigation on allegations of defrauding residents, neglect, defrauding the local council and assault; and acting for the long-serving head of a pupil referral unit accused of assaulting pupils under his care; acting for the London office a foreign state broadcaster ordered to produce ‘journalistic material’ .

Career

Trained Simons Muirhead and Burton; qualified 1991; partner Hickman and Rose 1998. Served as a trustee for Haringey Citizens Advice Bureau. Delivered training to other lawyers and accountants on topics including confiscation, anti-money laundering and the SFO, and lectured for Legal Action Group and Queen Mary University’s public policy seminars.

Member

Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association; Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers; IBA.

Education

Ponteland Community High School, Northumberland; University of Leeds (1987 LLB); College of Law (1988 LSF).

Leisure

Music, theatre, sport.

Practice Areas

Crime - corporate; Crime - general; Fraud