Ben Close > Chambers of Sara Lewis KC > Birmingham, England > Barrister Profile
St Philips Chambers Offices
St Philips Chambers
55 TEMPLE ROW
BIRMINGHAM
B2 5LS
England
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Ben Close
Work Department
Crime & Regulatory
Position
Ben has been a specialist criminal practitioner since he was called to the Bar in 2009. His practice also encompasses regulatory work.
Ben is instructed by various prosecuting authorities and the defence, typically in serious and complex cases. His recent and ongoing cases include murder, attempted murder, large and complex drug conspiracies, high-value fraud and cases involving serious sexual offences.
Ben’s regulatory practice covers trading standards, consumer protection, food safety, environmental law, licensing, inquests, health and safety, and corporate and gross negligence manslaughter.
As well as appearing regularly in the Crown Court, he has also appeared successfully numerous times in the Court of Appeal including in reported cases, where he has been complimented for his thorough approach.
He is a Grade 4 prosecutor (the highest grade). He is on the specialist Grade 4 lists for Fraud, Serious Crime and Proceeds of Crime and he is on the Grade 3 Counter-Terrorism panel. He has also been appointed to the CPS specialist rape panel.
He has several ongoing cases in which he is leading junior counsel.
Ben is on the Serious Fraud Office’s Panel A for confiscation and Panel B for fraud, and he has been appointed to the ‘B’ list of Specialist Regulatory Advocates.
Ben has earned a reputation for a hard-working and thorough approach, but without losing sight of the importance of being personable and persuasive. He is equally at home addressing juries or judges.
After obtaining a First Class degree in Law where he achieved the highest marks in his university year, Ben completed an LLM in Criminal Justice prior to completing the Bar course.
He is a Midland Circuit trained advocacy tutor.
In 2020 Ben was elected to the Bar Council where he sits on the Education and Training Committee. He is a member of St Philips’ pupillage committee.
Career
Called 2009, Lincoln’s Inn.
Lawyer Rankings
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Business and regulatory crime (including health and safety)
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Ben Close –St Philips Chambers ‘Ben is a good junior: bright and tenacious.’
Regional Bar > Midland Circuit > Crime (general and fraud)
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Ben Close – St Philips Chambers ‘Ben has a sound, analytical approach to work. His strength is in analysing a complex case and getting on top of the details; he is a junior for particularly difficult and demanding cases. His advocacy is also sound. Ben is a silk of the future.’
St Philips Chambers maintains ‘a fine reputation as one of the top sets for criminal law on the Midlands Circuit’. Richard Atkins KC, ‘a great advocate with an easy courtroom manner’, defends and prosecutes in murder, manslaughter, fraud, and drugs cases, among others. In 2023 Rebecca Wade KC defended a mother charged with gross negligence manslaughter after her baby daughter drowned in the bath having been left unsupervised, with both parents under the influence of drugs at the time. Jonathan Barker has notable experience in high-profile cases – he recently represented social media influencer Mahek Bukhari, who, along with seven others, was charged with the double murder of her mother’s lover and his friend after their car was forced off the road into a tree. Ben Close, with a practice primarily consisting of ‘paper-heavy and multi-defendant cases‘, has recent experience handling money laundering matters involving considerable cryptocurrency purchases. Jennifer Josephs’ varied expertise covers murder, sexual offences, and drugs cases.