Denise Breen-Lawton - Year of call: 2000
A highly experienced trial lawyer and top Criminal law, Fraud and Family barrister. Consistently and highly rated by the Legal 500. A mixed practice allows her to draw on experience from several jurisdictions to her advantage when dealing with clients involved in multiple proceedings.
CPS Panel Advocate Grade 4
Serious Crime Group Grade 4
Professional Endorsements:
- Legal 500 Entry 2012: "Extremely efficient"
- Legal 500 Entry 2011: "is a delight to work with, thorough, charming and, when necessary, spiky"
- Legal 500 Entry 2010: “shows her mettle in tough cases”
- Legal 500 Entry 2009: “extremely organised and tough in difficult circumstances”
- Legal 500 Entry 2008: “Has massive potential”
- Legal 500 Entry 2007: “A dedicated and thorough Junior”
Skills:
- Extremely organised with the ability to manage and distil large amounts of information and documents
- Concise and clear advocacy in Court
- Good negotiation skills
- Thorough, with attention to detail
- Particular strengths: cross-examination, closing submissions and mitigation
- Good with difficult clients, particularly in emotionally distressing cases
- Financial/Business skills and experience
A highly experienced trial lawyer and top Criminal law, Fraud and Family barrister. Consistently and highly rated by the Legal 500. A mixed practice allows her to draw on experience from several jurisdictions to her advantage when dealing with clients involved in multiple proceedings.
An ability to get grips with large volumes of material very quickly and exceptional organisational skills mean a serious and heavyweight practice developed early on and continues to do so.
Excellent advocacy and client care skills mean she is able to deal with all types of clients, from the most vulnerable to the most robust, in the most serious and difficult cases. Has an ability to present or challenge expert evidence in all disciplines in a clear and effective manner.
Experience in the Business Crime Department at Irwin Mitchell before commencing Pupillage which included a 5 month Fraud trial dealing with Fraudulent trading, Bankruptcy and IVA proceedings, Director's Disqualification and Contract and loan agreements.
General Crime
An experienced criminal trial lawyer. Has appeared at the Court of Appeal on numerous occasions, alone and Led, including defending an Attorney General's Reference on sentence, Defence appeals against sentence and appeals against conviction.
Op Catorze (2012)
Instructed by the CPS Counter Terrorism Unit to appear at the Old Bailey to prosecute three young Kurdish women accused of petrol bombing a Turkish club in North London in revenge for an airstrike by the Turkish air force that killed over 30 Kurds in December 2011.
The defendants all pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to the endangering of life. The two older defendants were sentenced to 6 years 8 months imprisonment. The third, younger defendant received 6 years YOI.
Successfully argued against three Silks that the offence should be regarded as aggravated by both the defendants’ political motivations (which included expressions of support for the proscribed PKK) and racial motivation given that the club was selected for attack because it was Turkish.
Op Tartare (2008-2012)
Prosecution of three defendants in a long running prosecution brought by the CPS Complex Casework unit following joint investigations by the West Yorkshire Police and the City of Stoke Trading Standards Unit.
The most serious offence was a sophisticated and complex conspiracy to handle over £400,000 worth of vehicles stolen in Hanoi burglaries. The vehicles were given false identities supported by faked documentation. Many of them were then shipped to Japan where they were sold at auction. Others were sold to innocent purchasers or retained by the defendants. Two of the defendants also admitted a conspiracy to defraud which involved purchasing high mileage vehicles, "clocking" them and forging MOT certificates and service histories to support the false mileages before selling them via eBay and other web sites.
The case was complicated by the decision of the third defendant to reveal that he had been a police informant. He unsuccessfully applied to stay the indictment asserting that he had been authorised to participate / promised he would not be prosecuted. When that failed he ran duress claiming that he had been threatened by his co-accused. He was convicted and received 9 years imprisonment. The two other defendants pleaded guilty to both offences and received prison sentences of 6 ½ years and 4 years 9 months.
Operation Stet
Prosecution of multi million pound drugs importation conspiracy. Two part prosecution of 16 defendants, now serving over 100 years in prison in total. Complex areas of international disclosure, Dutch wire taps, cell site analysis, telephone and covert observation evidence.
R-v-F
Defence of a man charged with historic sexual abuse over many years taken on short notice. The evidence covered many years and was extremely complex and emotionally harrowing. He had abused many female members of his family over many years to varying degrees and the case required a balance of delicate and sensitive but robust cross-examination.
R-v-W
Prosecution of a woman who had failed to get medical attention for a young baby that had been shaken. Complex medical evidence and disclosure issues between the family and criminal courts.
R-v-M
Prosecution of defendant in his 80's for offences of historic sexual abuse on a child. An emotionally distressing and difficult case. An emotionally distressing case where the family had been torn apart by the offences coming to light.
R-v-M&S
Prosecution of a couple charged with assault and neglect where the child had been struck by a belt. The child had clear belt loop marks on his body after being struck and beaten by his step-father.
R-v-W
Prosecution of a defendant before a High Court Judge for assaulting a 2 year old. Exceptionally complex medical evidence presented by calling the most senior paediatrition in Yorkshire. The child had delayed speech and language difficulties and so the case was built upon medical evidence and the surrounding circumstances as the child was unable to tell anyone what had happened.
R v. Sheppard and Whittle [2010] EWCA Crim 65
Instructed by the Counter Terrorism Unit to prosecute an extremely complex case of racial hatred against Jewish, Black, Asian and other people. Several complicated and difficult legal arguments undertaken such as jurisdiction of the court, definition of ‘publication’ on the internet, definition of ‘written’ words, and the admissibility of the truth or otherwise of Holocaust material, and a defence ‘expert’ report on the Holocaust. Complex expert evidence was also called regarding whether Jews are an ethnic group or a religion for the purposes of the Public Order Act. Appeared in the Court of Appeal on numerous legal issues in the appeal against conviction. This is now a leading case on the issue of internet jurisdiction.
R v. Panesar [2008] EWCA Crim 1643
Conspiracy to Supply Class A Drugs. Defence of one of ten defendants. Complicated confiscation proceedings followed. Appeared at the Court of Appeal against a confiscation order, on the ‘Moulden’ point, of payments into the defendant’s mortgage account from unlawful funds.
R v McShane and Others [2011] EWCA Crim 1944 [2011] WL 2748062
Prosecution taken on at short notice of four defendants, and twelve Armed Robberies of bookmakers. Complex expert evidence in the areas of image analysis and comparison, footwear analysis and DNA. Won at the Court of Appeal on appeal against conviction on various points including the parameters of expert evidence that are admissible where no statistical data is available.
Operation Hanoi
Successful Prosecution of eight defendants for conspiring to Burgle over a lengthy period of time, covering many geographical areas and offences.
R v. Long
Defended as Junior in Murder only a few months after completing Pupillage.
R v. Hopkins
Defended in conspiracy to commit armed Robbery of Post Offices and Banks.
Fraud Experience
An extremely experienced Fraud lawyer, both for the Defence and Prosecution. Has all of the skills required to take large amounts of documents and distil the relevant evidence into useable formats in order to effectively manage, and present to the jury, hugely complex and cumbersome cases.
Provides legal advice and representation on all aspects of Fraud, including money laundering cases, mortgage and loan fraud, Ebay scams, carousel fraud and advance-fee fraud.
Operation Epworth
Prosecution of six defendants without a junior. Complex and sophisticated fraud committed by a bank employee who compromised a customer's personal information in order to drain £150,000 from their accounts and then dissipate the money into forty recipient accounts. All defendants ultimately pleaded guilty.
R v Osborne
Defended in eight-handed, complex, money laundering of the proceeds of drug dealing. The drugs had a street value of £7 Million. The conspiracy covered a three year period and the evidence included police observations, property deals in Bulgaria, bank transfers, property deals in the UK, property deals in Dubai, blackmail, the purchase of premium cars, land transactions, business purchases in the UK, and perverting the course of justice by falsifying documents.
R v. Zakeri
Defended in a Complex Inland Revenue and Customs Prosecution covering four businesses, over a period of six years. Extremely complicated and intricate confiscation proceedings followed.
Operation Darnley
Prosecuted a half million pound bank fraud which was highly complex due to computer evidence, volume of paper recovered and sophistication of methods used by bank employee and his associates. Successfully represented the Chief Constable on civil confiscation that followed.
R v. Hussain
Defence of an accountant charged with conspiring with others to defraud Customs & Excise of over £6.5 million in VAT. Successfully argued that the Indictment be quashed due to complex case law in the area of Carousel and Missing Trader Frauds.
R v. Sterling
Benefit Fraud listed for 3 months at Leeds Crown Court. Successfully argued that the Indictment be stayed as an abuse of process.
R v White
Defended complex Ebay fraud, mortgage and loan fraud. Defendant was acquitted of the main indictment after trial by jury.
Family
Extremely experienced Family Law Barrister in serious and complex care cases, leading other counsel, alone and being led. Acts for Parents and Guardians in serious cases of sexual abuse, baby shaking, serious physical injuries to children. Deals well with emotionally harrowing and distressing cases and guide clients through stressful and high pressure hearings.
A Family lawyer particularly experienced in cross-examination of psychologists and psychiatrists. Handles High Court taking Children out of the Jurisdiction cases (one before Munby J) and is well able to use her business skills and experience in fraud cases to represent clients in Ancillary Relief matters
LA v O+B [Jurisdiction case]
High court jurisdiction case, led by Henry Setright QC, where the child had been 'returned' to the UK by the British Court when the child had been born in another European country. The local authority eventually backed down and there was a successful return of the child to France on behalf of the mother.
R v H [Jurisdiction case]
High Court Jurisdiction case, led by Simon Bickler QC, where the child had been born in Pakistan and had never set foot on UK soil. Acted for the Father in opposing the mothers application to have the child 'returned' to the UK when he had never been here. Complex legal argument and submissions and the learned judge ruled in Fathers favour on every point.
LA V S
Representation of a mother who had five children. Proceedings were brought when one child fell out of the window of a high rise block of flatsand died. Succesfully argued against separation of siblings and adoption sought by LA, instead the children all stayed together in long term Foster Care and were able to have contact with both parents.
LA v H
Exceptionally complex care case whereby a consultant geneticist gave evidence regarding 'Fragile X' syndrome and its potential impact upon child development. The LA also called consultants in peadiatrics, psychiatry, psychology and an independent social worker amongst several other witnesses. The two eldest children remained with the parents and the two youngest with family members.
LA v D
Represented a young mother (a child herself in fact), who was accused of causing her two month old baby to stop breathing and covering her in significant bruising.
LA v M
Represented Grandmother of children as intervener in finding of facts sought against Grandfather of a twenty year history of sexual abuse upon the Mother. The Mother had complex and severe mental health difficulties. Required preliminary evidence from several consultant psychologists on the tricky issue of compellability of the Mother who was in and out of hospital with various physical and mental problems.
LA v M
Representation of a Mother who had deliberately burnt one of her three very young children and then concealed it. An added complication was the birth of twins during the course of the proceedings. Successfully argued for the instruction of an independent Social Work expert.
LA v A
Leading Junior Counsel for a Mother of five children. The respondent could not speak a word of English and had caused a burn to her youngest child with an iron. Hugely complex issues arose in relation to the other four children also, one of whom had ADHD and consequent behavioural problems. Two of her children had a genetic, degenerative, and terminal disability with an extremely short life expectancy. It was a particularly harrowing case fraught with emotion.
LA v G
Represented the father who was one of three in a pool of potential perpetrators for causing a baby shaking to his young daughter.
LA v R
Represented a Mother who had a twenty year history of amphetamine abuse and addiction. Successfully argued the court should return her children after a two year battle and two very lengthy hearings requiring cross-examination of numerous experts and social workers.
LA v A
Represented Father of one of three children of alcoholic Mother accused of severe neglect. The Father had many problems including drug and alcohol abuse. Included cross-examination of psychologist.
Regulatory Breach
Experience of Civil Confiscation proceedings. Regularly acts for the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire in such cases.
Part of Chambers Regulatory Breach Team
Experience of Inquests
Experience of Health and Safety and other areas of regulatory breach from time spent working in the Business Crime Department at Irwin Mitchell
Police Federation Work
Defended a number of Police Officers charged with criminal conduct successfully.
Lecturing and Training Experience
Trained Senior Doctors in giving expert evidence in child abuse cases
Trained Senior Drug Squad Officers in giving expert evidence at Crown Court
Ran an annual Advocacy Course for Trainee and Junior Solicitors for a number of years.
Trained Senior Police Officers in the conduct of Disciplinary Tribunals
