YEAR OF CALL 2022

Joe has a busy practice in Crown Court work, with experience beyond his call in serious crime, drugs, fraud, sexual offences and violence. He is measured and persuasive with judges and juries alike.

Joe accepts instructions to defend and prosecute in all areas of Chambers’ work and is regularly instructed as a led junior in multi-handed cases. He takes client care seriously and combines clear, strategic advice with compassion and patience for those involved in the criminal justice system.

As a led junior, he has recently dealt with a large-scale drugs conspiracy, a conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life, and a decade-long fraud against elderly victims. As a junior alone his instructions include counterfeiting, sexual offending involving evidence from undercover officers and the supply of large amounts of cocaine.

Joe has experience as independent counsel advising on matters of legal professional privilege in the execution of search warrants. He has been instructed by the National Crime Agency in civil applications for preventative orders and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to prosecute companies for tax offences.

Joe is currently acting for the appellant in the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, in appeals against conviction and sentence. He also accepts instructions in the Magistrates’ and Youth Courts.

Recent cases / instructions include:

SEXUAL OFFENCES

R v M (Maidstone Crown Court, 2023) – junior alone representing an Uber driver charged with sexually assaulting a female customer. Secured an acquittal.

NCA v I (Ealing Magistrates’ Court, 2024) – acted as sole counsel for the National Crime Agency in preparing and making a pre-charge application for a sexual harm prevention order. The respondent had travelled with a convicted sex offender to countries where they could abuse children. The pair had documented their exploits. Joe’s efforts secured an order with travel restrictions at an early stage in the proceedings.

DRUGS OFFENCES

Operation Coolum (Wood Green Crown Court, 2023) – Led junior in a six Defendant Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs, relating to approximately half a million pounds worth of Heroin and “Crack” Cocaine supplied in Islington and Camden. In July 2024 Joe also acted as led junior in the multi-million-pound money laundering operation relating to the proceeds of the drugs lines. Led by William Goss.

VIOLENT CRIME

R v P and others (Wood Green Crown Court, 2024) – Led junior, prosecuting a multi-handed attempted murder involving a gangland stabbing in a residential area. Trial due to take place in November 2024. Led by Sam Barker.

R v T and others (Harrow Crown Court, 2024) — Led junior prosecuting a five-handed conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.

R v H (Central Criminal Court, 2023) – junior alone prosecuting a man charged with causing grievous bodily harm to his stepfather.

R v A (Stratford Magistrates’ Court, 2023) – representing a young man charged with assaulting three emergency workers at a railway station. Secured an acquittal.

R v R (Wood Green Crown Court, 2024) – representing a man convicted of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control that caused injury. Despite a previous incident of biting by the dog and the breach by Joe’s client of the resulting contingent destruction order, Joe’s written and oral submissions secured a community order for his client and the return of his dog with no destruction or further order.

FRAUD AND DISHONESTY

R v S and others (Leicester Crown Court, 2024) – led junior prosecuting a crime family who had defrauded elderly victims by selling them mobile homes in part-exchange for the victims’ mortgage free houses. The defendants would then keep the difference for themselves or re-sell the victim’s mobile home to another buyer. Joe’s efforts in case preparation and negotiation led to pleas to the indictment by the lead defendant and full voluntary restitution of almost £300,000 to the victims of the fraud. Led by Kathryn Arnot Drummond.

R v A (Woolwich Crown Court, 2023) – junior alone representing a young man charged with fraud and tendering counterfeit currency. Joe’s efforts led to the abandonment of the fraud count and a suspended sentence for his client on the count of tendering counterfeit currency, despite authority that such offending usually attracts immediate custody.

FINANCIAL CRIME

R v K and C (Canterbury Crown Court, 2023) – instructed by the CPS Serious Fraud Division as junior alone prosecuting two men for their role in a £2M+ cash smuggling operation.

LICENSING

CC (2023) – instructed by the Metropolitan Police as sole counsel in an alcohol licensing application against a major London cocktail bar.

JWeeks@2hb.co.uk