Fraud:

Sarah is regularly instructed to prosecute and defend high-value and complex fraud cases, which are often multi-handed and require thorough and focused preparation. As a member of the CPS Specialist Fraud Panel (and previously as counsel instructed by the Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office) she has prosecuted many large-scale VAT and direct tax frauds, cases of duty evasion and cheating the revenue, dishonesty offences by persons in positions of trust, and money laundering offences. Sarah is also experienced in prosecuting substantial benefits frauds (for the Department for Work and Pensions) and Insolvency Act offences (for the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills / DTI). She is adept at the effective management and clear presentation of document heavy cases, dealing with the extensive disclosure exercises that are often involved, and conducting the substantial confiscation proceedings which flow from such prosecutions.

For further details please see the Fraud & Financial Regulation section.

Sexual Offences:

Sarah both prosecutes and defends serious sexual offences, including rape, familial offences and historic allegations. As an experienced prosecutor on the CPS RASSO List she regularly conducts cases of considerable gravity and sensitivity, often involving young and vulnerable witnesses (with the use of appropriate special measures including intermediaries) and complex disclosure issues (particularly in relation to third-party material).

Sarah also has extensive experience of cases involving indecent images of children (including those with complex technical evidence regarding the digital images / electronic devices in question); prosecutions arising from the use of undercover police officers and others posing as children online in order to identify sex offenders; and cases involving large-scale brothel keeping and the laundering of the significant proceeds thereof.

Recent prosecutions of note include: a serial rapist who targeted, robbed and violently attacked five lone women as they left the public transport system at night, subjecting them to repeated rapes / sexual assaults; a previously convicted murderer who was targeted by vigilante ‘paedophile hunters’ posing as children, who then attempted to blackmail the defendant as a result of the sexual offences he committed; a defendant charged with rape who suffered from parasomnia, and who claimed to have penetrated the complainant whilst he was asleep; and an 80-year-old defendant who sexually assaulted children as young as seven, but was unfit to plead by the time of trial due to complex cognitive disorders.

Defence cases of note include: a British mother charged with sexually abusing her young children whilst in Northern Cyprus (having fled there in order to avoid care proceedings in the UK), after her apparent unlawful ‘deportation’ back to this country by Cypriot authorities. An extensive abuse of process hearing examined the role of the National Crime Agency and Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the circumvention of extradition procedures by the police/judicial systems in TRNC and the Republic of Cyprus, which had resulted in the defendant’s forcible return to the UK and subsequent prosecution. Also defending, Sarah successfully appealed a conviction for sexual assault regarding the application of s.41 of the YJCEA 1999 to previous (potentially false) allegations of rape by a complainant: R v AM [2009] EWCA Crim 618; [2010] Crim.L.R. 792 – an authority cited in both Archbold and Blackstone’s.

Drugs/Violence:

Sarah regularly prosecutes and defends cases involving homicide, serious non-fatal violence and weapons offences. Recent examples include: the defence of a young gang member charged with murdering a member of a rival gang and stabbing another associate, following a sustained campaign of violence between gangs; the prosecution of five defendants for conspiring to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life, regarding an incident where live ammunition was discharged into a family home; the defence of a young man who caused serious head injuries to another in an unprovoked attack, after which the victim took his own life; and the prosecution of a defendant who stabbed a retail worker in an apparent homophobic attack, having warned authorities that he had stopped taking his antipsychotic medication.

Sarah also prosecutes and defends large-scale conspiracies to import, produce and supply controlled drugs, often involving multiple defendants and detailed surveillance, telephone and electronic evidence. She is experienced in dealing with the complex disclosure and PII issues that arise in such cases. Recent cases of note include: the prosecution of eight defendants involved in a substantial and sophisticated County Lines operation, a number of whom had received NRM referrals as potential victims of modern slavery; the defence of an individual charged with couriering large quantities of Class A drugs for a national network of Organised Crime Groups, who asserted duress by those running the operation; the prosecution of five defendants for conspiring to supply large quantities of cocaine from one OCG to another, whilst disguising the purity of those drugs and utilising encrypted phones and a loaded firearm; and the prosecution of six defendants for repeatedly importing vast quantities of Cannabis into the UK under cover of a legitimate business, following an extensive surveillance operation by the NCA.

Sarah is also experienced in conducting cases involving allegations of child cruelty, child abduction and the ill-treatment / neglect of those lacking capacity; offences of blackmail, arson and criminal damage with intent to endanger life; and driving offences resulting in death and serious injury (often involving complex technical evidence and issues of causation).