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Peter Lownds
Overview Peter Lownds is a former solicitor. As a solicitor he worked for major City law firm Slaughter and May and gained considerable experience litigating substantial commercial cases, including complex fraud cases. Since transferring to the Bar he has developed a practice focusing almost exclusively on fraud, terrorism, homicide, animal rights/other protestors and serious drugs offences. He regularly acts as leading junior and junior counsel in complex and substantial cases. What The Directories Say Peter is listed in the Chambers & Partners Directory 2010 for the fourth year in row as one of the leading junior barristers in criminal law. Recent cases Jobe Junior counsel in R v G; R v J [2009] UKHL 13 in which the House of Lords clarified the ingredients of the offences under s57 and s58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Broughton Junior counsel for a man accused of carrying out a bombing campaign in opposition to Oxford University's animal experimentation laboratory. The case included the first challenge within this jurisdiction to the reliability of low template DNA evidence. Leave to appeal against conviction was granted and an appeal hearing took place in February 2010. Judgment is currently awaited. Sharma Sole advocate for the main defendant in a £3M fraud and money laundering case concerning the immigration consultancy company Univisas and the submission of false applications to the UK immigration authorities. Beyioku Sole advocate for the main defendant in a £1M commercial fraud concerning the use of confidential information obtained from Job Centres for use in hundreds of false applications for benefits. Harris Junior counsel for a defendant charged with conspiracy to blackmail companies associated with Huntington Life Sciences over a 6 year period in the largest and most complex animal rights case ever. Griffiths Junior Counsel for the pilot of a gyrocopter recently acquitted of the unlawful killing of a supporter of the Warwickshire Hunt. He was originally charged with murder. This was dismissed at a hearing in October 2009. He was subsequently acquitted of gross negligence manslaughter in March 2010. Areas of Practice Fraud He has a background is in commercial fraud cases as a solicitor and fraud work has historically always represented a substantial part of his practice at the Bar. In 2009 he was instructed on both a major commercial fraud concerning the use of confidential information obtained from Job Centres for use in false applications for benefits (R v Beyioku) and .for the main defendant in a £3M fraud and money laundering case concerning the immigration consultancy company Univisas and the submission of false applications to the UK immigration authorities (R v Sharma). So far this year he has acted for the Finance Director of Blenheim Estates in relation to a commercial fraud (R v Donaldson) and for the Deputy Head of Legal Services of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi who was convicted of involvement in a $10.9M fraud (R v Johns). He is also currently instructed on behalf of a client accused of a substantial fraud involving the Post Office. He has considerable experience and expertise in representing clients accused of vehicle related fraud and acted for the main defendant in the largest ever motor insurance fraud involving false accident claims (R v Jalil and others). Terrorism He was junior counsel in R v G; R v J [2009] UKHL 13 in which the House of Lords clarified the ingredients of the offences under s57 and s58 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was junior counsel for client who was accused of inciting murder over the internet by running the media wing of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AG Ref No. 85, 86 and 87 of 2007, R v Tsouli and others. In that case the volume of computer generated material was so extensive that it was cited in Parliament by the Government as the justification for the failed attempt to extend the period of pre-charge detention to 90 days. (Click here for BBC news story) In 2008 he acted as junior counsel to the only acquitted defendant in a serious and complex terrorism trial concerning allegations of possession of computer related terrorist materials for a terrorist purpose (R v Khan and others, click here for BBC news story). Animal rights/other protestors He very recently acted as junior counsel for the pilot of a gyrocopter cleared of both murder and gross negligence manslaughter in relation to the death of a supporter of the Warwickshire Hunt (R v Griffiths). He is also currently instructed on behalf of a defendant charged with conspiracy to blackmail Huntington Life Sciences in the largest and most complex animal rights case ever (R v Harris). He is currently instructed for one of the defendants accused on involvement in an alleged conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station as part of the anti-climate change campaign (R v Palling). Last year he acted for a man accused of carrying out a bombing campaign in opposition to Oxford University's animal experimentation laboratory (R v Broughton, click here for BBC news story). The case included the first challenge within this jurisdiction to the reliability of low template DNA evidence. An appeal against conviction has recently taken place and judgment is awaited. Last year he also acted for a man accused of blackmail and other offences concerning a raid on a farm in Lincolnshire breeding rabbits for use in experimentation (R v Pogson). His past experience also includes acting for the main defendant in a high profile conspiracy to burgle an animal laboratory (AG Ref No. 54 of 2005, R v Keith Mann). Homicide He is regularly instructed in gangland related murder cases. He was junior counsel in 2006 for the first defendant at the trial concerning the double murder of John and Joan Stirland (R v Colin Gunn and others). In 2008 he successfully represented a client charged with the murder of a man at a City Club. The case was one of the first cases to involve consideration of issues of witness anonymity under Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008 (R v Okpala). In 2009 he acted for an acquitted defendant in a case involving a fatal shooting at a Barber's shop in West London (R v Richards). He is also often instructed on Caribbean Death Row cases. Memberships
Other He was junior counsel on two independent mental health inquiries into the care and treatment of two men convicted of separate murders in the late 1990s. He regularly acts for defendants in Court Martial proceedings. He has acted as junior counsel on a case before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (Tahsin Acar v Turkey (2004) 38 EHRR 12) He has presented training courses in person, on video and over the Internet. |
Year of Call1998 EducationBSc (Hons) Email AddressClick for contact details
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