Vincent Ward > New Park Court Chambers > Leeds, England > Barrister Profile

Vincent Ward

Work Department

Crime

Position

Vincent Ward has a well-established criminal practice. He accepts instructions in all types of cases, including complex cases and those of the utmost seriousness.

He is on the approved list of advocates authorised to prosecute rape and serious sexual offences. He also appears regularly in the Mental Health Review Tribunal. Previously he worked in the music industry where he developed organisational and interpersonal skills to an extremely high level. He is known for his straightforward approach and for getting to the heart of a case quickly.

Vincent is qualified to offer legal advice and representation directly to the public through the public access scheme and is using this opportunity to develop his civil practice. Having lectured in law at Northumbria University between 1998 and 2005 he maintains close links with the university, maintains a keen interest in education and training, is a qualified advocacy trainer and has recently completed a 3 year appointment as an external examiner for the BPTC (the professional course for training barristers).

Vincent was called to the bar in 1998 and has a Masters degree in mental health law.

Crime

Vincent has a burgeoning practise in both prosecution and defence work. He has prosecuted cases of serious violence and homicide. He is authorised to prosecute cases of rape and serious sexual offences. He has defended in cases involving homicide, serious fraud, large scale drug supply, large scale commercial burglary and serious sexual assaults (including rape).

He has become recognised for his use of information technology in case preparation and can confidently manage cases involving very high volumes of material. He maintains an interest in education.

• R v Jaspreet Oberoi, Ricky Collins and others. Operation Ultimatum.
  Conspiracy to Steal. Sheffield Crown Court. H. H. Judge Reeds K.C. Led by Matthew Donkin. Instructed by the Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, CPS. The prosecution of twenty defendants who were conspiring to steal rail in substantial quantities from locations all around the country. The principal organisers were a scrap metal dealer based at Kiveton Park, a former railway worker and a manager at Network Rail and those in lesser roles including a number of defendants who worked on the railway or were involved in the stealing. Some 3000 tonnes of rail were stolen and shipped abroad at a loss to Network Rail of over £1 million and generating substantial quantities of cash for the conspirators.

Due to the size of the case, the prosecution of the defendants needed three separate trials to be conducted over a period of 20 months. A vast volume of documentary and other evidence was obtained by British Transport Police officers and needed to be distilled down into manageable form for each jury, without contaminating one trial with evidence of a separate conspiracy. Cell-site evidence and telephone data was of such a volume that over one hundred separate Sequence of Events charts were prepared by an analyst to cover the 125 separate individual thefts that took place. Fourteen defendants were convicted.

• R v Ashraf – Defence- A conspiracy to commit arson in which Vincent defended. The case involved complex psychiatric and other medical evidence.
• R v Greaves (2018) – Defence This was a case involving the most serious sexual allegations by multiple complainants resulting in mixed verdicts. Although the defendant was acquitted of rape and other serious sexual offences those offences he was convicted of attracted a life sentence. The disclosure issues in the case were identified by the judge as of special interest to the national disclosure review announced by CPS in Jan 2018. The case also involved arguments over the service of telephone evidence. Vincent’s arguments were successful in both cases. Following those arguments (which took up the first week of the trial) the case involved cross examination on a large number of text and social media messages. This required lengthy detailed forensic work and demonstrates Vincent’s commitment to thorough preparation.

Inquests

Vincent is experienced in Inquest work. He has recently been instructed in the following cases:

• Represented the interests of an elderly car driver who had pulled out onto a road causing a collision in which the teenage driver of an oncoming car and her 8 year old brother died. There were parallel criminal proceedings.
• Represented the interests of a lorry driver involved in a head on crash with a car in which the car driver died.
• Represented the interest of a car driver who had run down an killed an elderly pedestrian.

Public Access

Vincent continues to develop his experience in landlord and tenant work (both commercial and residential) and is rapidly growing his practice in assisting small businesses in particular.

• Re: A – A case in which Vincent represented the claimant in a claim for specific performance of a contract to buy/sell real property.
• Viewpoint – Vincent advises this client (a commercial landlord with properties in Berwick) on a regular basis. He has drafted particulars of claim in a successful lease dispute and advised generally on landlord and tenant obligations over the last 7 years.
• PCC Systems – Vincent drafted bespoke terms and conditions for this SME Information Technology company (2016)

 

Memberships

• CPS Level 4 Prosecutor
• CPS Specialist Fraud List Level 2
• CPS Specialist Rape Panel