Rupert Kent

Practice Profile

Rupert is a polished and sought-after barrister routinely instructed in the defence and prosecution of lengthy and complex cases involving financial crime, in particular in ‘white collar’ work, as well as in murder and other serious crime cases. He is regularly instructed as leading counsel, and also appears as a led junior or junior alone. He is a Grade 4 CPS General Crime Advocate Panel member, receives Serious Fraud Office instruction (being security cleared), and is public access qualified.

In relation to financial crime, Rupert is both a Grade 4 CPS Fraud Specialist Advocate Panel member and a Serious Fraud Office B Panel member, and has advisory and advocacy experience (for both the prosecution and defence, and on appeal) in the following areas:

• Business crime
• Insolvency
• Asset restraint
• Confiscation
• Money laundering
• Investment fraud
• Banking fraud
• Pension fraud
• Tax fraud
• Mandate fraud
• Duty evasion fraud
• Immigration fraud
• Procurement fraud
• Bribery

In relation to serious crime, Rupert is a Grade 4 CPS Serious Crime Specialist Advocate Panel member, and a Grade 4 CPS Counter Terrorism Specialist Advocate Panel member, and has advisory and advocacy experience (as above) in the following areas:

• Murder
• Firearms
• Drugs supply
• Modern slavery
• Gang activity
• Human trafficking

Rupert's Privacy Policy can be downloaded here.

Appointments

• CPS General Crime - Level 4
• CPS Fraud - Level 4
• CPS Serious Crime - Level 4
• CPS Counter Terrorism - Level 4
• SFO - B Panel
• Kosovo Specialist Chambers Specialist Counsel (Defence; Victims)

Memberships

• Fraud Lawyers Association
• South Eastern Circuit

News

• R v T & 2 Others [Leeds Crown Court] 2023

  Murder

  Rupert Kent was instructed by the CPS Complex Casework Unit as led junior in this three-handed eight week trial relating to a 2011 murder, in relation to which a witness subject to immunity from prosecution gave evidence as to the torture, murder, burial and subsequent cover-up of the victim.

• R v T [Snaresbrook Crown Court] 2023

  Perverting the course of justice (murder)

  Rupert Kent was instructed by the CPS Homicide Team as a junior alone in this single-handed prosecution relating to activities, conducted 24 hours after a murder, that were intended to remove the murderer from the scene of the crime, hide him from the police overnight, and then remove him from London the following day.

• R v W & 1 Other [Central Criminal Court] 2023

  Murder

  Rupert Kent was instructed by the CPS Homicide Team as led junior in this two-handed seven-week trial relating to a 2018 murder, with knives and a firearm, committed by members of a London gang. The trial involved calling an acquitted defendant from an earlier trial as a prosecution witness.

• R v S & 6 Others [Bournemouth Crown Court] 2023

  Drugs Supply & Modern Slavery

  Rupert Kent was instructed by CPS London South as leading junior in this seven-handed two-month trial focussing on the county lines class A drug supply activity of a London based gang who targeted vulnerable drug addicts in Bournemouth, and used children as drugs runners.

• R v A & 2 Others [St Albans Crown Court] 2023

  Fraud & Bribery

  Rupert Kent was instructed by the CPS’s Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate as a led junior in this three-handed three-month trial centring around the large-scale and dishonest procurement of goods by an employee of, and suppliers to, an NHS Trust.

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