David Bentley

David Bentley is a criminal law specialist, with extensive trial experience at leading junior level. Considered by Legal 500 to be "carving out a strong reputation", he is also featured as "ranked counsel" in Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession. His practice covers all major crime with particular focus on murder/manslaughter, serious drugs offences and fraud/money laundering.

High profile trials have included:

• R v Powell (blackmail and firearms offences against the QPR football chairman, Gianni Paladini)

• R v Peach and others (gold bullion scam with money stolen from comedian, Ricky Gervais)

• R v Mentore (the "Prada gang" robberies)

• R v Meek (the Cripps Corner contract killing)

• R v Sagar (solicitor indicted for corrupt practices)

• R v Megrabi and others (£50M money-laundering scam)

• R v Gatsinzi and others (described by the BBC as "the UK's biggest ever stolen car racket")

• R v McLaughlan and others, where he acted for the lead defendant in a major "ghost worker" fraud against the MOD at the Devonport nuclear submarine base.

He has recently acted for Mel Broughton, a leading animal rights campaigner who was tried on counts relating to fire-bomb attacks on Oxford University premises. This case involved critical examination of the reliability of low template ("touch") DNA, and he has developed considerable expertise in this controversial area.

Current instructions include a multi-£M VAT fraud and a high-profile death by dangerous driving case.

Advising in cases concerning miscarriages of justice is a special interest. He has extensive experience in advising on appeals to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords, and appears regularly in the Court of Appeal. He has also been instructed in several notable referrals from the Criminal Cases Review Commission, including:

• The landmark House of Lords decision R v Kennedy (unlawful act manslaughter & causation)

• R v James and Karimi (provocation in murder; precedent between HL & Privy Council)

• R v G (counsel's conduct of defence affecting safety of conviction).
  

Other recent appeals include:

• R v Powell (re competence of very young children to give evidence)

• R v Atkinson (bad character)

• R v Anwoir (money laundering)
  

He has written extensively on issues relating to criminal justice and human rights for both the national press and legal publications, and has contributed to Radio 4's "Law in Action". He is co-author of the fair trial chapter in the forthcoming book, Human Rights in the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime (OUP), and also co-authored an in-depth critique of recent developments in money laundering law in Archbold News, issue 2, 2009 (click here to read). He also lectures, and has provided training for a range of organisations including the CCRC, Liberty and the DCA. In 2004 he travelled to Turkey on behalf of the Council of Europe and the Foreign Office where he provided training to local judges and prosecutors on the fair trial provisions of the ECHR.

Year of Call

1984

Education

LLB(Hons)

Email Address

d.bentley@doughtystreet.co.uk

Telephone

Ext 249

Specialist Teams

Member :

• Courts Martial
• Criminal Law
• Human Rights
• Regulatory and Financial Crime