Kat Shields
Year of call
2016
Instructing Kat Shields
For more information please contact our clerks by calling +44 (0)20 7242 3555.
Kat Shields is an experienced advocate with a focus on serious and sophisticated organised crime.
Kat appears for both the defence and prosecution in multi-handed organised crime trials, complex fraud cases, and POCA proceedings. She advises in investigations, on charge, and on post-trial financial orders.
Kat has particular experience in fraud and money laundering, having appeared as sole and junior counsel in a number of Crown Court cases featuring allegations of this nature. She has also been recently instructed in matters relating to sanctions, anti-money laundering controls, and insolvency.
Kat also appears in extradition cases. She is experienced in dealing with cases with an international element or featuring mutual legal assistance. In 2023 she was awarded a Pegasus Scholarship from the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, allowing her to build relationships with advocates in India.
Kat also has an employment practice, and is particularly well-placed to advise on disciplinary matters which may lead to criminal proceedings.
Legal Expertise
Financial Crime
Financial Crime
Kat has significant experience in complex financial crime investigations and trials, and contested POCA proceedings. She has advised on matters relating to sanctions. She has also acted in various cases concerning insolvency-related offences and director disqualifications.
Kat was seconded to HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service in 2022, to work on matters relating to Covid assistance schemes. She is currently instructed in an ongoing high-value HMRC prosecution.
Kat is on the SFO’s C Panel of Counsel.
Notable Financial Crime cases
R v Hill (2024)
Sole prosecution counsel in the trial of a carer convicted of defrauding a vulnerable elderly man over whom she held lasting power of attorney.
View case >R v Mungur (2024)
Sole prosecution counsel in the trial of a man caught overseas and extradited to the UK after a decade on the run to face trial on a series of charges relating to smuggling Class A drugs into the country, and laundering over £1,500,000 in cash derived from that smuggling activity.
View case >R v Tiara (2023)
Junior prosecution counsel in a long-running complex fraud trial which also involved allegations of perverting the course of justice. Led by Gareth Weetman.
View case >FCA v NatWest (2021)
Junior counsel representing NatWest during the FCA's first pursuit of criminal charges against a financial institution for purely procedural money laundering failings, despite the institution having played no direct role in the money laundering itself. Led by Jennifer Carter-Manning KC.
View case >
Crime & Regulatory
Crime & Regulatory
Kat prosecutes and defends in cases involving allegations of serious violence, drug trafficking, modern slavery, arson, and public disorder. She has substantial experience of cases which include complex pre-trial disclosure exercises.
Kat has recently prosecuted a number of trials involving allegations of common law and statutory public nuisance.
Kat is a Grade 3 CPS prosecutor. She is on a specialist CPS panels for Serious Crime, Fraud, POCA and Extradition. She also has experience of private prosecutions.
Notable Crime & Regulatory cases
R v Meta and Others (2024)
Junior prosecution counsel in a multi-handed trial relating to a conspiracy to produce cannabis, following three large-scale cannabis farms being discovered in Oxford and Exeter.
R v J (2024)
Prosecution counsel in a trial involving an allegation of arson with intent to endanger life. The Defendant resided on a narrowboat, moored alongside others, which he set alight.
R v T and Others (2023)
Defence counsel in a multi-handed drug trafficking case which progressed to contested POCA proceedings. These ultimately resolved when the Crown accepted that although the Defendant had been stopped with 85kg of Class A drugs, his role merited a benefit figure only in line with the comparatively insignificant amount he had been paid to transport them.
Employment
Employment
Kat maintains an employment practice alongside her work in the criminal courts. She appears for both Claimants and Respondents in the Employment Tribunal. She is able to provide advice to clients who are facing or conducting disciplinary procedures which may result in criminal proceedings. She also has experience of civil fraud committed in the workplace.
Kat is experienced in cases involving allegations of discrimination and unfair dismissal. She has recently been instructed by the Metropolitan Police and higher education institutions to draft, advise, and appear in cases featuring allegations of this nature.
Instructing Kat Shields
For more information please contact our clerks by calling +44 (0)20 7242 3555.
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