Ranked as a Leading Junior in Professional Discipline and Regulatory Law in the Legal 500 2018.
William Davis is an experienced criminal advocate with particular expertise in fraud and confiscation. He is in demand to prosecute for the CPS Specialist Fraud Division and the Serious Fraud Office, and is instructed by the Civil Aviation Authority, the Health and Safety Executive, the Office of Rail and Road, and Westminster City Council. He has appeared at Courts Martial and before the Parole Board, and has extensive experience of professional disciplinary work. His courtroom manner is composed and authoritative and he inspires confidence in both his professional and lay clients. He is secretary of the Criminal Bar Association Education and Training Committee, and a member of the Fraud Lawyers Association and the South Eastern Circuit.
Significant instructions for 2018 include: R v. LM and Others – Leading for the Prosecution in first ever prosecution for fraud against Redundancy Payments Service; R v. TD and Others – Leading Prosecution Counsel in multi-million pound prosecution for duty evasion; R v. Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd – Prosecution Counsel in health and safety prosecution following level crossing accident; and R v. AM and Others – Defence Counsel in £15m alleged money laundering.
Appointments:
CPS Panel Advocate - Grade 4
CPS Specialist Panel - Rape & Serious Sexual Offences
CPS Specialist Panel - Fraud
CPS Specialist Panel - Serious Crime
SFO Panel of Counsel - List B
Regulatory List of Specialist Advocates in Health & Safety and Environmental Law - List C
News
Legal 500 2018
25 October 2018
Chambers are delighted to again be recognised by...
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William Davis led Dickon Reid in the prosecution of five defendants charged with a £3.6m alcohol duty and VAT evasion fraud. The ringleaders were importing beer, wine and spirits from Europe using sophisticated mirror loads. Evidentially, the case was complicated and comprised numerous strands including surveillance, phone evidence, CCTV, business records and expert evidence relating to cell site, handwriting and tachographs. The two leading defendants received sentences close to the statutory maximum. Instructed by CPS Special Casework.
William Davis was defence Counsel for a Defendant charged with perverting the course of justice. The Defendant was accused of enabling the main suspect in a murder enquiry to evade police in the hours following the murder and to avoid arrest for a period of five months by making false witness statements and arranging accommodation for him.
William Davis was Instructed as Junior Defence Counsel for one of six Defendants charged with conspiracy to facilitate unlawful immigration by arranging sham marriages. The Defendants were Lithuanian and arranged for women to travel to the UK to marry non-EEA nationals.
William Davis was Defence Counsel in one of the first prosecutions brought under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for subjecting victims to forced or compulsory labour. The Defendants were Vietnamese and owned nail bars in Bath and Burton-upon-Trent. The police found young Vietnamese girls working there who had entered the UK illegally and were alleged to be working without pay in return for food and accommodation. The case is to be the subject of a BBC documentary series in 2018.
William Davis was Junior Defence Counsel for one of a group of Defendants accused of serious sexual offences against three different complainants, including rape, sexual activity with a child, inciting prostitution, and supplying controlled drugs.
"I don’t imagine that there is anything new which I could tell you about his many and evident abilities, but he did a VERY nice job, in just the way which you and I approve and admire"
commendation sent to Head of Chambers Mark Heywood Q.C. by Patrick Gibbs Q.C. - 3RB
