Tom Hoskins

Tom Hoskins

A practice encompassing serious crime, professional discipline and public law.

YEAR OF CALL 2007

Education

LL.M National Security Law, Georgetown University School of Law, Washington D.C. (Distinction);
Thomas Bradbury Chetwood, S.J. Prize for most outstanding academic performance in LL.M course
BVC (Outstanding);
Lord Denning Scholar and Buchanan Prize for academic achievement
GDL (Commendation);
Lord Denning Scholar
BA (Oxon)
Edith Coombs Exhibition Scholarship.

Appointments

Attorney General’s Civil List of Advocates on the C Panel
CPS Grade 3
CPS Advocate Panel at Level 3
CPS Extradition Panel at Level 2

Memberships

Young Fraud Lawyers’ Association
Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers

Legal 500 - Leading Junior

Overview of Practice

Tom Hoskins is a highly accomplished barrister whose practice covers all areas of serious crime (both prosecuting and defending), as well as professional discipline and public law.

As well as the full panoply of criminal cases, Tom is a seasoned white-collar crime and Proceeds of Crime Act practitioner, possessing significant experience of all aspects of confiscation, cash detention and forfeiture, as well as civil recovery. Tom’s work has a distinct international flavour, having worked in the United States for a firm specialising in international anti-corruption matters across multiple jurisdictions and having represented defendants on death row in Trinidad and Tobago.

Tom is an excellent advocate in professional regulation tribunals, particularly in the healthcare sector. He has built up extensive experience acting both for regulators and registrants who face disciplinary action. Tom’s work in this arena encompasses the most complex, lengthy and high-profile cases within and includes significant appellate experience. It is for good reason that he is regarded as the ‘go-to’ external counsel by Europe’s largest professional regulator.

In addition to his excellent advocacy experience, Tom has advised upon and conducted corporate investigations concomitant to significant business transactions and, additionally, investigations prior to disclosure by companies to law enforcement agencies. Tom also advises on the design and implementation of corporate compliance regimes to prevent bribery, corruption and sanctions breaches.

‘Very good and knowledgeable advocate. Very good with clients.’
Legal 500 (2023)

Practice Areas

Tom acts for both defence and prosecution in criminal cases heard in the Crown Courts of London, the South Eastern and Western Circuits. His experience as a junior alone includes serious drugs offences including production and supply of Class A, B and C drugs, all violence offences short of murder, public order offences and sexual offences, including against minors. Such work necessarily includes representing challenging defendants and advocacy involving vulnerable witnesses and experts, as well as a thorough understanding of complex areas of criminal law.

Tom’s talents are particularly well suited to fraud and while collar cases and he has repeatedly been instructed in cases requiring the careful presentation of complex financial evidence before juries, that have attracted judicial praise. Given his background in professional regulation Tom is also highly effective at representing clients who work in regulated professions accused of criminal offences since he possesses a proven ability to safeguard defendants’ interests with one eye to the potential of subsequent professional disciplinary action.

Tom has a particular passion for international corruption cases, including assisting companies to manage the risk of bribery occurring through effective compliance regimes, or those facing action by the Serious Fraud Office under the UK Bribery Act. During a break from practise in Chambers, Tom pursued a Masters’ degree at Georgetown University specialising in this area and subsequently worked as an attorney for TRACE International, an internationally recognised leader working for companies to reduce bribery in international business transactions.

For TRACE, Tom undertook multiple investigations into corporate deals to prevent clients’ exposure to bribery prosecutions. Because of his time in the United States, Tom has a thorough understanding of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practises Act (which is aggressively enforced internationally) as well as the international dimensions of bribery prosecutions between national prosecuting agencies as well as thorough experience of the U.K. Bribery Act. Such experience makes Tom perfectly places to assist multinational corporates to navigate the complex issue of bribery prevention and defence.

Tom has a thorough knowledge of all aspects of asset recovery, both after criminal conviction and also through civil recovery in the absence of convictions.

Tom has appeared for both prosecution and defence in complex and contested post-conviction confiscation proceedings. Tom has presented (at first instance and on appeal) cash detention and forfeiture cases, including those brought by the National Crime Agency and on behalf of other police forces across the UK.

Tom has a particular expertise in civil recovery proceedings under Part 5 of POCA, having worked very closely with the National Crime Agency on a two-year secondment alongside his independent practise to litigate such cases. This experience extends not only to full trials before the High Court, but also: advising on covert investigations; restraint of assets; interim applications like exclusions for legal and living expenses; obtaining and challenging evidence obtained from abroad; and post-Civil Recovery Order enforcement.

Tom has also built up an impressive experience of local authority prosecutions for food hygiene, licensing matters and the like, as well as cases brought by private prosecutors such as the Royal Mail and TV Licensing.

Tom is an impressive professional disciplinary advocate. He has acted for professional regulators in hundreds of contested cases before practise committees and panels hearing allegations of impaired fitness to practise across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Such professional discipline experience includes acting in cases of the utmost complexity and those attracting significant press attention.

Tom also defends people facing investigation and trial before their professional regulator at Interim Order, full hearings and Substantive Order review stage. In addition to accepting instructions through practitioners’ Unions, Tom also represents registrants directly through the Bar Council Direct Access Scheme.

Tom has significant appellate experience in regulatory cases, including by way of judicial review hearings. Tom’s experience extends to highly technical areas of healthcare practise, including cross examination of experts as well as multi-handed matters and those lasting more than fifty days.

Tom has appeared alone in Judicial Review proceedings both at permission stage and full hearing stage. He also has extensive experience of advocacy in the Public Law arena by virtue of his professional disciplinary appellate work and proceedings brought by the National Crime Agency seeking civil recovery of assets obtained through unlawful conduct.

Tom is also an experienced disclosure junior in Public Law cases where the disclosure exercise is simultaneously vast and highly sensitive. This includes his work acting for the Ministry of Defence in cases alleging unlawful detention policies and personal injury during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has also worked in a disclosure capacity for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on a case alleging the rape abroad of a locally engaged member of staff.

Tom has experience of conducting litigation arising from the provisions of Data Protection Act, Education Act and The Equality Act.

Tom has experience as a led junior in tax cases, including MTIC fraud cases acting on behalf of HMRC and is keen to expand this area of his practise.

Notable Cases

Adediwura v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2013] EWHC 2238 (Admin) – Appeal against sanction decision of FtP tribunal involving allegations of dishonesty.

Nowak v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2013] EWHC 3335 (Admin) – Acting for the regulator in an appeal against disclosure decisions of the NMC in a case brought by a vexatious litigant.

McDaid v Nursing and Midwifery Council [2013] EWHC 586 (Admin) – Judicial Review of regulator’s processes.

R v SW (Inner London Crown Court) – Defending money laundering and possession with intent to supply large quantities of class A, B and C drugs.

R v GR (Lewes Crown Court) – Prosecuting two-week theft and fraud trial involving complex financial material and complainant with dementia.

R v X (Wood Green Crown Court) – Defending a riot and looting case leading to acquittal following legal argument on continuity of evidence and police investigatory procedures.

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