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. 

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.

James Martin was junior alone in this case that was said to involve a gang related kidnap and blackmail that was connected to the distribution of drugs. Case against MT was built on the concept of Joint Enterprise. Said to have allowed her house to be used by other members to kidnap, attack and blackmail another. Unanimously acquitted by the Jury. Instructed by Hodge Jones Allen.

James Martin leading Lizzie Wilson as led Junior. Case involved allegations that MS was the leading figure in a conspiracy to steal to order high value motor cars either by keyless thefts or by burglaries where the car keys were stolen. It was a sophisticated operation where cars were stolen to order which had a total value of well over £2m

James Martin was junior alone in this multi-handed conspiracy to import counterfeit cigarettes worth several million pounds. Successfully defended man accused of being involved in a conspiracy to import lorry full of cigarettes. Main defendant was accused of being the centre of plan to use his legitimate haulage company to run large imports of counterfeit cigarettes into the UK from Europe.

James Martin Led by Trevor Burke QC in this conspiracy to commit armed robberies from 2001. Defendant was the only man not caught up in the original operation which produced four trials. There are issues of Abuse of Process and other complex issues relating to potential ramifications of the evidence given by other defendants in the original trials.

James Martin was junior alone in this Multi-handed conspiracy to Kidnap and Blackmail. This case concerned the enforcement of a drugs debt. The principle defendant was a drugs dealer and the man kidnaped dealt for him. He had built up a significant debt and was taken from the street and held for most of the day. His family were contacted and demands for money were made. 

James Martin appeared as defence counsel in a multi-handed conspiracy to supply cannabis and cocaine. This was a large intelligence led operation which centred on the activities of one of the defendants said to be the head of an organised crime group which was supplying large quantities of both Cocaine and Cannabis. The key evidence came from a combination of phone/cell site evidence and the product of a covert listening device placed in the car of the lead defendant.

James Martin instructed as junior alone. Large scale conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs.

James Martin instructed as junior alone. Largest ever importation of firearms into the UK. Weapons were military grade assault rifles of the type that could have been used in a "Paris Style" attack on the UK mainland. Weapons were smuggled in to the country on a boat into Kent where they were intercepted by armed under cover officers

James Martin appeared as leading counsel. 9 defendants charged with people trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and money laundering the proceeds. This case involved a protracted investigation into the alleged conspirators. The evidence centred around flight manifests, Money transfer records, mobile phone downloads and anonymous hearsay evidence taken from internet companies that advertised the prostitutes said to be under the control of the defendants. After substantial legal argument the Crown were persuaded to drop the case against this defendant.