James Martin

Practice Profile

James Martin is recommended Counsel in Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500. He is an experienced practitioner who prides himself on attention to detail and a fearless approach to defending his clients’ interests. Described by his peers as “a no nonsense advocate and a tough opponent” (The Legal 500 2017)

Mr Martin acts as leading counsel in the full range of criminal offending but in particular tends to focus on serious organised crime and fraud. He is also regularly led in homicide cases. He has particular experience in dealing with complex multi-handed cases of all types and is very adept at dealing with technical evidence such as that retrieved from 'phones, computers and associated cell site evidence.

Although a large amount of his work comes from traditional sources James Martin is also able to accept instructions on a Direct Access basis and has been permitted to conduct litigation by the Bar Standards Board.

James's Privacy Policy can be downloaded here.

• R v AL [Luton Crown Court] 2022

  Conspiracy to Produce Cannabis

  James Martin, leading Anna Dutka, successfully submitted there was no case to answer against the client in this 4-handed conspiracy to produce cannabis and the Judge directed not guilty verdicts. The case also involved a shoot-out over one of the cannabis factories and attracted local media attention.

• R v IA & Others [Southwark Crown Court] 2021

  Conspiracy Class A Drugs & Firearms

  Ria was led by James Martin in this multi-kilo Class A drugs conspiracy involving firearms. The case featured extensive Encrochat, probe and surveillance evidence.

• Operation Edge [Woolwich] 2020

  Multi-handed class A & B drugs conspiracy involving “Encro chat” devices

  James Martin led Phoebe Bragg in this 4 week case involving surveillance evidence and evidence of “encro chat” devices. The defendant was accused of being the head of an organised criminal network trafficking large quantities of class A & B drugs and involved expert evidence regarding the use of “encro chat” as well as significant legal argument regarding bad character evidence. 

• R v Shariashvili & 6 Ors [Isleworth CC] 2019

  Consp to Facilitate Illegal Immigration in the UK (Trial 1)

  Mr Martin was leading Counsel for D1 with Peter Eguae as his Junior. This case (Operation MANDEBRAS) related to a Home Office Investigation into a suspected Organised Crime Group facilitating persons into the UK, through abuse of the ‘common travel area’ with the Republic of Ireland.

  Legal issues involved consideration of the underlying immigration offences relied upon by the Crown, Cross-admissibility as between the different counts and whether the Crown had fallen foul of indicting a single conspiracy when it appeared that there were multiple agreements at play.

  Following extensive legal argument at the close of the Crown’s case (and the close of all the evidence) the indictment was left with only one substantive offence against the main defendants for the Jury to consider from what had been significantly wider allegations. As a result the Jury were discharged and a retrial was ordered for that one remaining Count against the 4 defendants.

• R v Abubakar Salim & ors [Blackfriars Crown Court] 2019

  Fraud and Money Laundering

  Mr Martin was leading Counsel for Mr Salim. The case centred around the activities of two men who worked at high street banks who assisted another in creating a significant number of sham bank account for the use in a transfer fraud. The legal issues involved the proper application of the definition of “Criminal Property” following cases such as R v GH [2015] UKSC 24 and R v Loizou [2005] 2 Cr App R 37.

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