Steven focuses on financial and business crime and related civil, public and regulatory work. His clients include domestic and offshore financial services institutions, high net-worth individuals and domestic and offshore government agencies. He appears as an advocate in both the criminal and civil courts.
Steven also appears regularly in national security-related civil litigation for the government, and in particular in cases involving control orders, national security deportations and exclusions and terrorist asset freezing.
Recommended in Chambers & Partners 2011 as a “fantastic” leading junior “who wins plaudits for his work on the international circuit”, Steven also featured as one of the noted “up and coming” counsel in the 2009 and 2010 editions. Described in 2009 as an “excellent all-rounder with a very sound knowledge of sanctions legislation” with “significant experience of cross-jurisdictional investigations, compliance and money laundering issues” and in 2010 as “popular with solicitors” and “a cerebral barrister who will undoubtedly do very well”.
NOTABLE RECENT CASES:
Domestic Business Crime:
- R Grewal & Ors [2010/11] – Defending a property entrepreneur charged with £3.3 million mortgage fraud (Junior alone).
- R v Hickman and Or [2009] – Defending a company director charged with Medicines Act offences, Trade Mark offences and money laundering (Junior alone).
- R v Iqbal and Ors [2008/9] – Prosecuting multi-handed conspiracy to defraud the Department for Education and Skills during the operation of the Government’s I.L.A. scheme (Led Junior).
- R v Hibberd and Ors [2008] – Defending a company director charged with conspiracy to defraud Royal Bank of Scotland and Lombard of several million pounds (Led Junior).
Public Law:
- B v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 828 – Special Immigration Appeals Commission; Contempt of court; Appeal against sentence of imprisonment; Mental health; Articles 3 and 8 ECHR
- IR (Sri Lanka) & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2011] EWCA Civ 704 – Special Immigration Appeals Commission; procedural fairness; Article 8 ECHR.
- Naseer & others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Unreported, SIAC, 18 May 2010 – Deportation of ‘Operation Pathway’ terrorism suspects to Pakistan on basis of assurances; Article 3 ECHR.
- Durant International and others v Attorney General of Jersey [2006] JLR 112 - Instructed to assist the Attorney General of Jersey in judicial review challenge to decision to disclose information pursuant to letters of request from an overseas jursdiction. Attorney General successful at first instance and in Court of Appeal.
SEMINARS & PUBLICATIONS:
- February 2011 – Lecture on “The Bribery Act 2010: Key Legal and Practical Risk Areas”.
- November 2010 – Lecture on “Exposing the Vunerabilities of Financial Systems to Financial Crimes” at a 2-day conference organised by the Jamaican Financial Services Commission in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
- February 2010 – Lecture on “Banking Secrecy from a UK perspective: the erosion of the principle of banking confidentiality in the UK” at a 2-day AIJA conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Co-author of “Anti-Money Laundering Legislation in Jersey – The New Regime” – Jersey and Guernsey Law Review, October 2008.
-
Debating with David Farrer QC on the topic of “Cross-Border Corruption and Consenting Principals” in London.
-
October 2007 – Lecture on “Abusing Offshore Structures for Terrorist Financing” at a 3-day International Seminar in Switzerland, entitled “Combating the Financing of Terrorism”. This seminar was attended by a number of representatives from 32 different countries as well as from various international organisations.
APPOINTMENTS & MEMBERSHIPS:
- Attorney General’s Unified Panel of Advocates
- Serious Fraud Office Panel of Approved Counsel (“B” Panel)
- Administrative Law Bar Association
- Financial Services Lawyers Association
- Criminal Bar Association
Contact Steven Gray
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7242 3555
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7242 2511
Email: clerks@7br.co.uk