25 Bedford Row Barristers Chambers | Dermot Keating

Recognised in the Legal 500 as a leading fraud lawyer- ‘case preparation is brilliant’.

Acts as leading or junior counsel specialising in serious, complex and sensitive cases.

Principal areas of practice are:

Fraud, money laundering, confiscation and restraint proceedings.
Trading standards
Serious Crime: including Homicide, multi-handed drug importation cases, firearm and kidnap cases.
Sexual offences: extensive experience of cases involving young and vulnerable complainants and defendants.
Extensive appellant court experience.

Has prosecuted fraud and sexual offences cases prior to joining chambers. His experience is reflected in his current grade three classification.

Dermot Keating is associated with the following areas of expertise:

Dermot Keating is also available for public access work.

Directories

Dermot Keating is recommended as a leader in fraud in the Legal 500 2012

‘case preparation is brilliant’

R. v. Gold –defending one of the principal defendants in large scale and complex carbon credit fraud.
Cumbria CC v. Wilson–Leading counsel in an on-going trading standards prosecution arising from a recycling fraud.
R. v. Tatham - Leading counsel defending company director charged with fraud and regulatory offences.
R. v. Godley – SFO prosecution. Represented the CEO of major UK company in international ‘Ponzi’ fraud.
R. v. Farnesi – large multi-handed case concerning an international letter of credit fraud, with a background of prior SFO investigations, insolvency proceedings and director disqualifications. Case stayed as an abuse of proceedings 12 weeks into the trial.
R. v. Wood –Leading counsel in multiple defendant trading standards prosecution.

R. v. Williams –Defending principal defendant in on-going £24m confiscation proceedings.
R. v. Davies –Represented defendant who was said to have managed a number of brothels in complex confiscation proceedings. Final benefit and realisable figure reduced substantially after submissions.
R.v. Godley-confiscation proceedings arising out of SFO prosecution with corporate, international and trust aspects.
R. v. Aitken – Conspiracy to money launder. Multi-defendant cases involving attempted multi-million fraud from financial institutions. Successfully represented the defendant in confiscation proceedings.

R. v. Baxhija & Papalexis: Homicide. High profile cold case murder where defendant Baxhija was arrested 10 years after the offence. Case spanned seven months and two trials at the Central Criminal Court. Notably for the cut-throat defence between the defendant (an illegal immigrant) and his co-defendant and employer Papalexis –‘a millionaire’. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6132765/Thanos-Papalexis-guilty-of-murdering-caretaker.html
R. v. Baptiste: Homicide. Successfully represented a defendant charged with the stabbing of 14 year old school boy. This was a catalyst for the ‘war on knife crime’ media campaign.
R. v. Campbell: Leading case on minimum sentences for firearm offences. This identified a lacuna in the law in relation to offenders aged 18-20. Proceeded by a media campaign on sentences for firearm offences and the subsequent change in the law.
R. v. Cormack: “Operation Manola”: successfully defended the first defendant in this multi handed large drug importation case.
R. v. Muturi: “Operation Fronton”, defended one of the three primary suspects in this multi handed kidnap case investigated by New Scotland Yard Kidnap Unit.
R. v. Virgo: “Operation Dearwood”. Defended in multi handed drug importation case that involved drugs been transported to this country via commercial transporters.

Hertfordshire County Council v Mark Tatham - Leading counsel acting for a businessman in a trading standards prosecution pursuant to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. Complex and voluminous investigation involving multiple complainants. Secured pleas to regulatory offences alone and the defendant received a suspended prison sentence.
The case is set to feature in the current 2012 series of the Channel 5 programme “Cowboy Builders”.
R. v. Davies: case concerned one of the first prosecutions under the Health Act 2006 of a Pharmacist and included Misuse of Drugs Regulations.

R. v Allaraj [2012] EWCA Crim 986 –sentence reduced in immigration case
R. v. Gu [2012] EWCA Crim 133, [2012] 2 Archbold Review 2,-appeal against conviction allowed for ancient common law offence of running a disorderly house.
R. v. McMahon [2012] EWCA Crim 210- appeal involving interpretation of the dangerousness provisions in light of the recent Supreme Court case of Smith
R. v. McIntosh and Marsden [2011] EWCA Crim 1501- leading case on treatment of hidden assets in confiscation proceedings.
R. v. Crombie [2011] EWCA Crim 1404-successful appeal on sentence on grounds of age and ill health
R. v. Barnard [2011] EWCA Crim 1906 –appeal against sentence for an appellant who used his finger as a fake weapon for multiple ‘armed’ robberies.
R. v. Brooks [2009] EWCA Crim 367 –successful argued for IPP sentence to be quashed and replaced with determinative sentence.
R. v. Campbell [2006] EWCA Crim 726- Leading case on minimum sentences for firearm offences. This identified a lacuna in the law in relation to offenders aged 18-20. Proceeded by a media campaign on sentences for firearm offences and the subsequent change in the law.
R. v. Wolin [2005] EWCA Crim 3066-drugs sentence reduced from initial 12 years at Crown Court to five years on appeal.

Regularly lectures externally and internally on areas relating to disclosure, fraud and sentencing.
Regulary contributes to a number of working groups on behalf of the Bar Council, CBA and SEC including:
- Bar Council Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) (2011-12)
- CBA response to the Burglary SC guidelines
- CBA response to the consultation on “breaking the cycle” 2011 http://www.criminalbar.com/86/records/455/Breaking the Cycle CBA Response.pdf
- Joint Bar Council/CBA working group which responded to defence witness code and regulations http://www.criminalbar.com/86/records/280/Bar Council CBA Response to Defence Witness Code Consultation.pdf
- SEC response on proposed regulatory changes by BSB and JAG consultation on QAA http://www.southeastcircuit.org.uk/committee/working-party-reports.
- CBA response to the Law Commission’s 2009 Consultation paper on Expert evidence in Criminal Cases.
Member of Inner Temple advocacy training and trains external pupils and junior practitioners.
Pupil Supervisor