Paul Lazarus

Barrister

Paul is a well known and experienced jury trial advocate who practises in serious and white collar crime.

Paul has a wealth of experience in cases of murder, serious violence and other grave criminal matters. Paul has a calm and calculated approach to the most complex and challenging of cases. He is hard working and accessible, willing to advise in detail at all stages of the case.

He has a fine eye for detail when it comes to the analysis of expert evidence, in particular that of telephony and computer evidence which is now prevalent in most complex criminal cases.

Paul has a great deal of experience in cases of fraud and white collar crime including confiscation. He has appeared for the defence in some of the most complex cases ever prosecuted in this area including cases of missing trader fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

He has a sound record of winning difficult cases in difficult circumstances and is noted for his ability to present his client's case fearlessly.

Paul is qualified to represent clients on a direct access basis, if appropriate.

Professional Memberships

Fraud Lawyers Association
Criminal Bar Association

He is exceptionally bright and attentive, and well respected by the judiciary and peers alike.
Chambers UK
He's a truly gifted advocate with a razor-sharp mind.
Chambers UK
Very clever, very enthusiastic and gives you a great feeling of confidence.

Homicide and serious violence

R v Omar - 16 year old accused of murdering his friend by stabbing him in the leg. The defendant maintained that he had not intended to cause serious harm. The case featured extensive pathological evidence as to the cause of death and the level of force used to inflict the wound which was carefully and subtly challenged. The defendant was found not guilty of murder by the jury.
R v Fearon - Young man accused along with a co-defendant of murder arising out of an incident of "car jacking". The defendant maintained that he had not foreseen that his co-defendant would stab the victim or cause serious harm in any way. The case required careful cross examination of several expert witnesses instructed by the prosecution including a vehicle recognition expert who gave detailed evidence on the timing and location of the suspect vehicle throughout the night of the incident. The defendant was found not guilty of murder by the jury.
R v Myers - Defendant charged along with 4 others with conspiracy to commit murder. The case revolved around telephone evidence, specifically in respect of the attribution of a certain mobile telephone number attributed to the defendant which would have implicated him in the plan to murder the intended victim who was shot by two men wielding shotguns. The case was extremely well investigated and presented in great detail to the jury. The defendant was found not guilty after gaps in the cell site and telephone attribution evidence were exposed due to the careful preparation of the defence case.
R v Tobin - Allegation of murder by serial killer Peter Tobin. The defendant was accused of the murder of a young lady in the early nineties and then burying her body in his back garden only to be discovered many year later. The case attracted a great deal of media attention and involved forensic and pathological evidence from several sources.
R v Samuel - Defendant charged with murdering his girlfriend in her home. The case involved a great deal of medical and pathological evidence and relied upon numerous witnesses to previous incidents between the parties.
R v Edward - Defendant charged with the attempted murder of an undercover police officer who had been undertaking surveillance of his home in connection with the supply of drugs.
R v Kane & Others - Defendant charged with kidnap, false imprisonment, blackmail and possession of a firearm with intent to commit and indictable offence. The case involved the holding of a hostage for a period of days during which he was subjected to being burned with an iron and repeatedly beaten.
R v Hussain & Others - Defendant charged with kidnap, false imprisonment, s.18 wounding. The defendants in this case were accused of kidnapping the victim by use of a "honey trap" and thereafter subjecting the victim to serious violence including attempts to set him on fire.
R v Miah & Others - Defendant charged with two counts of murder along with 3 others. The prosecution alleged that the case amounted to an "honour killing" although the deceased were mistakenly targeted when their house was set on fire instead of the address of the intended target. The case involved a mass of CCTV evidence, evidence from fire experts, cell site and computer evidence.
R v Carroll - Defendant charged with s.18 wounding after stabbing a gas engineer in the head who had gained entry to his home to fit gas metering equipment.
R v Nikolov & Others - Defendant charged with s.18 GBH after getting into a fight outside a nightclub in London. The defendant claimed that he had acted in self defence after being attacked himself and was found not guilty by the jury.
R v Glenn - Defendant charged with false imprisonment, s.20 GBH and robbery after being accused of tying up a man in his flat before others attended and removed cash from the premises. The defendant was found not guilty after trial.
R v Kirwan & Others - Defendant charged with violent disorder and s.18 wounding (by stabbing). A successful submission of no case to answer was made on behalf of this defendant.

Other Notable Cases

R v Clark - Represented a defendant charged with 5 others with conspiracy to interfere with contractual relations in connection with animal rights protests which took place at various laboratories across England. The defendant was found not guilty by the jury after the longest running animal rights related trial ever prosecuted.
R v Smith - Allegation of being party to a high value theft from his friend's employer, namely Rio Tinto, of goods with a value in excess of £250k. Found not guilty after trial.
R v Moulay & Others - The defendant was the first of 9 defendants tried together for an allegation of conspiracy to handle goods with a value in excess of £200k namely apple Iphones. A submission of no case to answer was made on behalf of this defendant (said to be the "main man" by the prosecution) at half time which was successful.
R v Fish & Other - The defendant was charged with conspiracy to counterfeit currency (Sterling and Euros) with a value in excess of £2 million pounds along with 8 co-defendants. The case involved a great deal of surveillance and telephone evidence. The defendant was found not guilty by the jury.
R v Mohammed & Others - The defendant was charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery over a period of several months. The prosecution alleged that the defendant and his 5 co-defendants had been responsible for the armed robbery of 11 book making offices in South London during the conspiracy period.
R v W - Allegation of sexual assault on a tube train said to have been witnessed by three undercover police officers. Found not guilty by the jury after trial.
R v Cruceanu & Others - Allegation of conspiracy to produce false identity documents. Application to dismiss successfully made on behalf of this defendant.

Fraud and Financial Crime

R v Megret & Others - Successfully represented one of five defendants charged with one of the largest ever alleged conspiracy to cheat the public revenue. His client, a respected film industry figure, was the only defendant to be acquitted by the jury after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court which lasted 8 months.
Dubbed "Operation Bulkhead", the criminal investigation launched by HMRC into a marketed film investment tax avoidance scheme that operated between 2002 and 2005, took years to investigate. There were more than 50,000 pages of served evidence.
The total claim for tax relief submitted on behalf of the investors in the scheme (many of whom were well known celebrities) amounted to a sum in excess of a quarter of a billion pounds. HMRC launched the investigation after refusing to accept that the claim for losses sustained in the first year of trading for each scheme were "allowable" for the purposes of the relief claimed. The prosecution alleged that the defendants had conspired to cheat the public revenue by falsely inflating the value of the losses claimed in order to facilitate tax evasion.
R v Whellams - Allegation of missing trader intra-community fraud in respect of the repayment of VAT claims worth several million pounds. Operation "Rosary".
R v Kargbo & Others - Allegation of money laundering by a defendant charged with several others connected to a sophisticated fraud upon the Olympic Delivery Agency in the run up to the London Olympics in 2012. The defendant was found not guilty after a trial lasting over 2 months.
R v Karwicki & Others - Complex POCA confiscation proceedings involving 4 other defendants who had all pleaded guilty to cheating the public revenue. The prosecution argued that the defendant had hidden assets and submitted that a confiscation order in excess of 4 million pounds should be made by the court. After a contested final hearing lasting over two weeks that final order made was under ten thousand pounds.
R v Madummage & Others - Allegation of high value money laundering by a defendant who worked for a bureau de change.
R v Witham & Others - Allegation of high value money laundering by a defendant who had worked with the principal defendant. A plea to a much lesser regulatory offence was negotiated.
R v Begum - Allegation of high value fraud by an employee of Barclays bank who was accused of colluding with others who posed as customers in respect of compromised accounts.
R v Dunn & Others - Acted for a defendant charged with fraud upon her employers, South West Trains - she was accused, along with 7 others, of manipulating the machinery in the ticket office in order to defraud the Oyster card top up system at the Richmond Train Station in a fraud which went undetected for over almost 2 years.