Kenneth Aylett > 3TG Barristers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Kenneth Aylett

Position

Areas of Specialisation

Kenneth has appeared in almost every type of criminal case, including treason, murder, robberies, rapes, frauds, drugs and cigarettes importations conspiracies, extradition, obscene publications, international plant and car ringing conspiracies and telephone sales conspiracies amongst others, offences against children, offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act and money laundering, misconduct in a public office.

Previously he was on the Attorney-General’s Panel of Counsel, List A. He was approved to prosecute cases of great weight, complexity and public importance, and was approved at Grade 4 on the CPS External Advocate Scheme. Currently, his criminal practice centres on defence work.

Collecting and presenting foreign evidence in court, he has particular experience in the international aspects of criminal investigations and procedures.

He has made a speciality of the impact of the European Court of Human Rights on the English Criminal law and the application of the Human Rights Act to English case law. He had a substantial practice in both defence and prosecution across all areas of crime, more notably white-collar crime, fraud and corruption. Ken has also advised on police investigations into the activities of major criminals, and into the alleged crimes of police officers.

Career

Recent Cases.

• Conspiracy to import £millions worth of cigarettes.
• Conspiracy to overprice, overestimate and falsify building requirements, and underperform contracts, and the resulting Proceeds of Crime Proceedings.
• Money laundering and property export fraud between the UK and France of £millions.
• Money laundering facilitating transfers between the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, up to £4million.
• A fraud on the Inland Revenue over many years using 4 companies and many associates
covering the UK and Eire.
• An Inland Revenue and VAT fraud amongst the gang masters supplying labour to the agricultural industry using ghost companies and ghost workers.
• A cannabis factories conspiracy involving kidnapping, violence, and collecting evidence
in UK and Vietnam.
• A fraud on a bank by using false bank accounts and phishing.

• Trading Standards fraud, with pensioner victims.
• A handling and theft fraud involving vehicles and insurance companies.
• A money laundering conspiracy involving bank transfers between the UK and Rumania and the export of stolen property.
• Death by careless driving.
• A case on the introduction of evidence of character on the Human Rights Act to the House of Lords.
• Attempted murder during a random street attack by a drugs gang.
• Fraud on the NHS relating to building and supply contracts with care homes.
• International gangs smuggling cigarettes through Asia and Europe.
• High Interest Rate investment fraud.
• Drug supply conspiracy using County lines and modern slavery.
• Vietnamese nail bar, people smuggling, mortgage fraud etc gang.
• Modern slavery of Balkan nationals and prostitution ring.

Notable Cases

Kenneth has appeared for the CPS in the lengthy “Corley Enquiry,” looking into the circumstances in which major criminals caused the conviction and long prison sentence of an innocent police officer for a series of robberies. There followed convictions for criminals and officers for perverting the course of justice and misconduct.
He was involved in a major investigation into the activities of police officers from Stoke Newington allegedly recycling and planting drugs on suspects, the “Jackpot Enquiry,” which involved appeals of many people convicted by the evidence of Stoke Newington police officers.

A Sample of Frauds

R v L & Others.

Prosecution in the “St Paul’s Cathedral fraud” involving £100 million advance fee and prime bank instrument fraud and concerning foreign resident witnesses from Saudi Arabia, Italy, the USA and elsewhere.

R v W.
Allegations of Inland Revenue fraud by a company concealing its activities by false accounting practices

IMRO’s investigation of, and multi million pound payment by, Morgan Grenfell following “The Peter Young Affair,” defending the Chief Executive.

R v Ohanwe & Others
Prosecuting an international advance fee fraud, directed from Nigeria, against local and central banks and individual victims throughout the world, with potential losses reaching
£500 million.

R v K and W
Prosecuting an international advance fee and high yield income fraud, involving many millions of pounds, with witnesses from around the world.

R v O
Successfully defending in a mortgage fraud – taking the point that no offence was disclosed in law, which occurred as a result of overturning a principle of law and the introduction of new legislation.

R v T & Others
Defending employees in “Iceland” for corrupt practices following the float of the company on the Stock Exchange.

R v E & Others/ L & Others
Defending in long firm frauds, with victims throughout the UK

A Sample of Cases concerning Professionals

R v S
Defending a CPS Solicitor on charges of blackmail over his business activities.

R v O
Defending a solicitor for money laundering, involving a client account deficit of £1.8 million Successfully reducing confiscation to £1.

A Sample of Fraud and Smuggling Offences

R v S & Others
Smuggling of drugs from the continent. Defence allegations of state sponsored crime, by undercover and participating officers from the UK and abroad, both instigating the crime and recruiting the defendants.

R v D W & others
Defending in a carousel / diversion fraud that collapsed after points of law were taken re disclosure failings by HM Customs & Excise.

R v P & Others
A conspiracy to cheat the Inland Revenue, by smuggling millions of pounds worth of cigarettes and tobacco. The successful point of law taken was on the insufficient specificity of common law offences.

R v M & others
Defending in a drug smuggling case, in which the alleged controlling figure was released at the end of the prosecution case, following the forensic destruction of a telephone/ contact schedule.

R v C & others

Defending in a multi-million pound smuggling conspiracy, with operations from the continent to Northern Ireland and the UK. Lengthy and complex legal arguments on duplicity in the evidence and disclosure failings resulted in a stay of the case after months of trial.

R v L & others
Defending in a case in which industrial quantities of cannabis were smuggled by a Soweto defendant from South Africa. Confiscation figure reduced to zero after seven hearings.

R v Q-H & others
Representing a Columbian drug smuggling organiser, the kingpin in a trail which led from Columbia to North London.

R v H and others.
Conspiracy to supply drugs from abroad, through London to Bristol.

A Sample of Offences of Violence

R v P & others
Successfully defending in a North London gang kidnapping involving firearms.

R v C
Defending in a gang revenge murder, and subsequently appearing for the opposing gang in cases of murder and attempted murder resulting from their retaliation.

R v R
Representing a brain damaged defendant charged with the murder of his friend.

R v D & others
Defending a case of riot, the offence having occurred at the Rochester Young Offenders Institute.

R v G & others
Successfully taking a point of law whilst defending an asylum seeker in the Yarlswood Detention Centre Riot, in which the inmates destroyed the premises by arson.

R v G & others
A case involving forced and sham marriages of drugged girls in the UK and in India. Handling the defendant in giving Queen’s Evidence.

R v M and others.
The biggest robbery in value in Cornwall with criminals imported from abroad.

R v M
Severe violence using an iron bar on a victims head.

R v O and others.
Deep and life threatening stabbings to a victim’s stomach in gang conflicts over drugs debts.

A Sample of Sex Cases

R v K
Defending an alleged rapist from Poland, convicted of similar rapes and kidnapping in Poland. Taking a Human Rights point to the House of Lords, on the point of properly proving foreign convictions.

R v H S
A case of marital rape by a husband living at home in a shed in the garden.

R v V S
A case concerning a paedophile’s rape of his own son.

A Sample of Special Case Work

• Advising in “Operation Kingsbourne” on the most effective way of removing the assets from a major criminal.

• Advising and prosecuting in allegations against police officers in a variety of cases, including kidnap of their own suspect.

• Prosecuting police officers for their hot pursuit of suspects, resulting in the death of the suspects.

• R v Westell – a case in which ‘Fathers for Justice’ closed 6 major roads around London in the rush hour, taking a Human Rights Act point combined with common law nuisance to justify their actions.

Other information

• Teacher of Advocacy to junior barristers for over 33 years.
• Grade A advocacy trainer IATC.
• Previously the longest serving member of the Inner Temple Advocacy Committee, he has organised mock trials for junior barristers and been a director of the junior tenants continuing education programme. In addition to running advocacy courses for barristers, he judges moots for young barristers and at various Universities.
• Organiser of International Contests of Mock Trials for University students from UK and USA.
• Guest lecturer/trainer on advocacy courses in California, Minnesota, Ontario.
• Panel member at the California Bar Conference
• Founder member of the American Inn of Court, London.
• Presentation of demonstration trial in Warsaw to Russian and East European Judges through the OSCE/ODIHR.
• Conference Lecturer for ECHR/HRA (Bar Council) on the Human Rights Act.
• Lecturer to the legal authorities in Belgrade, Serbia, on the handling of informers, following the assassination of the Prime Minister.

• He has served on many committees for the advancement of the Bar and the gaining of advanced advocacy skills.

Broadcasting: He has provided commentary and analysis of trials and current legal issues on television, especially on the USA Clinton/Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky saga, and the L

 

Memberships

Senior Bencher of the Inner Temple
Criminal Bar Association
Society of English and American Lawyers
American Inn of Court, London