Areas of Practice:

• Crime
• Financial and Regulatory Crime
• Courts Martial
• Commercial Fraud and Asset Recovery
• Arbitration

Ranked in Legal 500 Leading Silks General Crime since taking silk in 2017

“His advocacy is nothing short of brilliant’ Legal 500 2017

“His work includes boiler room and other fraud cases..” Legal 500 2018

"With his dulcet tone and Kiwi accent, juries love to listen to him." Legal 500 2020

‘Mathew possesses real fighting spirit. He has incisive tactical flair and he sees things in cases which other would not always pick up on. He quickly wins the ear of juries with his innate charm and common-sense approach. A joy to work with and a great leader of a defence team.’ Legal 500 2021

“Likeable, honest and intellectually tenacious, he's a very genuine advocate." "A charming performer who communicates effectively and wins the ear of the jury. He is effective on unpopular cases as the jury will listen to him with an open mind." Chambers 2021

"A hugely impressive advocate. His expert knowledge of the law, and his ability to apply that knowledge to fast-changing scenarios, is particularly stellar" Legal 500 2022

"Mathew is an extremely thorough, intelligent and tenacious barrister who has a sense of justice which flows through every single piece of work he does" Legal 500 2023

"Mathew is a brilliant tactician who is meticulous in preparation, has a real eye for detail, and is very persuasive in court" Legal 500 2024

"Mathew is a charming and persuasive advocate. He is able to assimilate large volumes of complex material very quickly, and to draw incisive and pertinent conclusions from it. His advocacy style is good humoured and down to earth, and he is popular with juries. Mathew fights hard in court, but is a pleasure to deal with out of it." Legal 500 2025

FINANCIAL AND REGULATORY

With a predominantly civil practice in his early years at the Bar Mathew is well equipped to deal with complex allegations of fraud and regulatory offences. He has wide experience of the whole gamut of fraud including: MTIC; carbon credit; boiler room; cash for crash conspiracies; revenue offences and related international money laundering.

Mathew advises and appears in civil restraint, forfeiture and confiscation proceedings. He spoke as a keynote speaker and panellist at the March 2019 Legal Era Conference in Mumbai on the topics of international bribery investigations and unexplained wealth orders.

He has appeared before a wide range of regulatory and disciplinary tribunals including the GMC, The Showman’s Guild and disciplinary hearings on behalf of professional sportsmen, police officers and doctors. He has a particular expertise advising and appearing in respect of no supply and Kittel/Mecsek-Gabona issues in VAT appeals.

Significant cases:

R v Marino & Ors - instructed to represent an investment banker accused of multimillion pound fraud by abuse of position of the Gaddafi controlled Libyan sovereign fund, LAIP. First NCA prosecution of complex international fraud. News report.

Sheth & Ghazi v. HMRC [2022] UKFTT 167 (TC) – Successful First Tier Tribunal appeal of HMRC assessment against director and managers’ liability to pay penalties of circa £1.8 million on basis their company submitted deliberately inaccurate VAT returns on the grounds that HMRC had not discharged the burden of proof on it to show that the conditions exist for denying the zero-rating of supplies made by their company AIL on the basis of Mecsek- Gabona principles. HMRC did not prove that the AIL’s transactions were connected to transactions giving rise to fraudulent VAT losses.

M&M v HMRC [2020] UKFTT 107 (TC) Company which sold luxury motorcars should have known that those transactions were connected to fraudulent evasion of VAT.

R v M – instructed to represent director accused of multimillion pound fraud by abuse of position in respect of Libyan sovereign fund, LAIP. First NCA prosecution of complex international fraud. Case is ongoing.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/frederic-marino-banker-accused-of-using-libyan-money-to-fund-lavish-lifestyle-a6912796.html

R v. B – instructed to represent Defendant after conviction in his confiscation proceedings. The Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to corrupt arising from the activities of his co-defendant who was Lead Director of the Impaired Assets Division of HBOS in the South of England (ongoing).

Rogue HBOS banker sentenced to 11 years in prison | Financial Times

R v. N - Defendant charged with conspiracy to defraud, fraud by abuse of position and perverting - the boiler room fraud involved the mis-selling of shares in a luxury hotel development and off-the-plan villas in Madeira. This was one of the FCA’s most complex fraud investigations and the first FCA prosecution of an offence of perverting the course of justice.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45521235

R v. H - representing director of engineering firm contracted to install broadband for BT and Carillion Telent. Conspirators alleged to have set-up a series of bogus companies dishonestly purporting to sub-contract labour. The bogus companies evaded the payment of more than £15 million in VAT and CIS payments. Defendant acquitted of main count on indictment after successful half-time submission.

R v. D - million-pound conspiracy to defraud arising from abuse of garage liens by a high turnover car engine remanufacturer

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4406570/Father-sons-conned-motorists-jailed-11-years.html

R v. W - successful defence of conveyancing legal executive charged with multi-million-pound conspiracy to defraud multiple mortgage lenders.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10716335.Twelve_appear_at_court_in_connection_with_multi-million_pound_mortgage_fraud_probe/

R v. E - successful defence of land registry fraud after successful submission of no case on issue of indefeasibility of title.

R v. W - instructed by Registrar in appeal against conviction for boiler room fraud based on allegations of competence of a legal professional.

R v Wilmot (Christopher) [2014] EWCA Crim 529

COMMERCIAL FRAUD AND ASSET RECOVERY

Mathew has significant experience in cases involving allegations of commercial and insurance fraud. He regularly advises and acts in relation to allegations of civil fraud, interim freezing and production orders, unexplained wealth orders and Part 5 POCA proceedings. Recent instructions include advising an individual alleged to have dishonestly conspired to secure a default judgment and world-wide freezing orders via sham litigation in High Court.

GENERAL CRIME

Mathew is instructed in complex and difficult cases of national and international interest including murder, manslaughter, health and safety prosecutions and large-scale organised crime.

High profile instructions include: junior counsel for the notorious millionaire Nicholas Van Hoogstraten; junior counsel in the Johnson Matthey gold bullion robbery; acting for the bookkeeper for Tommy Adams and the successful defence of soldiers 1A and 1B prosecuted for neglect of duty in respect of the deaths of three candidates during SAS selection in the Brecon Beacons.

Significant Cases:

R v B – Attempted Murder – unusual case of alleged attempted murder of a high-profile Nottingham plastic surgeon by a fellow consultant plastic surgeon. Case is ongoing.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/14/plastic-surgeon-broke-into-consultants-house-and-stabbed-him-court

R v P – Murder – historic cold case involving allegation murder of a prostitute in 1994. Case is ongoing.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/north-london-man-charged-murder-26438845

R v D – Murder – tragic case defending young mother charged with murder and neglect of her three month old child. Case is ongoing.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10688677/Parents-deny-child-cruelty-murder-two-month-old-daughter.html

R v L – Double murder - represented Georgian ex-policeman alleged to have stabbed two friends to death in a violent fracas after a heavy drinking session.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/vytautas-garmus-charged-murder-house-ilford-b859136.html

R v S – Murder - Defending the principal defendant convicted of the murder of an aggressive drug dealer in Ealing in excessive self-defence.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/three-brothers-convicted-stabbing-man-to-death-acton-osvaldo-de-carvalho-b923882.html

R v M – Murder - Defending young Defendant convicted of the murder of popular drill rapper Crosslon Davis.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56380622

R v. G – Murder - Successful defence of Polish national charged with murder in which it was alleged that he was one of three men of who stamped their friend to death in a homeless shelter after a disagreement.

Murderer 'Chillingly calm' after substantially kicking man to death.

R v. L – successful defence of Millwall fan charged with one punch manslaughter of a Nottingham forest fan. Crown offered no evidence on manslaughter count at trial upon accepting defence submissions on causation and medical evidence

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-45889608

R v. D - Murder - Successful defence of fourteen-year-old charged with murder following death of an elderly man after a violent street robbery. Plea to manslaughter accepted

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-43321402

R v. M – defence of the bookkeeper for Tommy Adams in money laundering trial.

https://news.sky.com/story/gangster-tommy-adams-jailed-for-seven-years-for-money-laundering-11109735

R v. SM – defence of a notorious Liverpool gang enforcer in a series of blackmail allegations and s.18 GBH with a machete. Defendant acquitted of five of the six counts of blackmail and the one count of GBH.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/violent-pimp-who-banned-liverpool-12331437

R v. M - Defendant was charged with attempted murder after shooting a couple as they lay in bed sixteen times. Acquitted of attempted murder, convicted of GBH.

https://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/news/croydon-news/gunman-tells-judge-suck-your-530949

R v. B – successful defence of owner of a bonded warehouse charged with importation of 250 kgs of cocaine and 2 tonnes of cannabis in shipments of fruit and vegetables. The Defendant pleaded to conspiring to evade duty on cigarettes

http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc/news/fruit-and-veg-cigarette-smuggling-ring-squashed-123918

R v. Maxwell [2010] UKSC 48 - leading authority on abuse of process arising from executive misconduct. In this case serious police misconduct rose in respect of the handling of a supergrass.

R v. Van Hoogstraten - junior counsel in retrial which led to millionaire’s acquittal.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/dec/09/1

COURTS MARTIAL

Mathew has a particular expertise in Courts Martial, defending in the two major SPA prosecutions of 2018 in including the successful defence of Cipher 1A and 1B. He also appears in inquests involving deaths in the military.

Significant Cases

R v. P - captain charged with gross negligence manslaughter following the accidental shooting of a soldier on the Castlemartin live firing range in 2012

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-44945232

R v. Cipher 1A and 1B - the successful defence of an officer and warrant officer charged with neglect of duty who invigilated a test march in the Brecon Beacons for a Special Military Unit during which three candidates died of heat illness in 2013.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45557588

ARBITRATION

Mathew has a particular interest in the issue of corruption in the context of international arbitration proceedings. He spoke as a panel member at the Paris IBA Corruption conference in June 2018 on the subject. He is a contributor to IBA Joint Sub-Committee on Corruption and Arbitration. He was a keynote speaker at the Legal Era Conference in Mumbai in March 2019 on this issue.

Reported Cases

Darmalingum v Secretary of State for Mauritius(PC) [2000] WLR 2303

R (Mudie) v Dover Magistrates [2003] 2 WLR 1344 (CA)

R v Van Hoogstraten [2004] Crim LR 498

Att-Gen’s Ref (No.3 of 2004) [2006] Crim.L.R 63,CA

R v Maxwell [2010] UKSC 48

R v Wilmot (Christopher) [2014] EWCA Crim 529

R v. Ehi-Palmer [2016] EWCA Crim 1844

M&M v HMRC [2020] UKFTT 107 (TC)

Seth & Ghazi v HMRC [2022] UKFTT 167 (TC)

Memberships

Kings Counsel on French Consulate recommended panel of avocats

Member of Fraud Lawyers Association

CBA