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Education

ICSL (BVC) 2001-2002

City University (Law Conversion), 2000 – 2001

University of Bristol (Politics) 1st Class Honours, 1991-1995

Background

Prior to the Bar Michael spent 6 years in the City, firstly as an equities' analyst and later as a sales trader in Emerging Markets' securities

Practice

Criminal Defence practice including: murder; fraud; serious and sexual violence; drugs importation, distribution and supply; money-laundering; organised crime.

Michael Gomulka is associated with the following areas of expertise:

Crime
General Fraud
Regulatory and Disciplinary
White Collar Crime

Cases

Fraud and Financial Regulation

  • R v Donoghue & Others - sole counsel in 6-handed banking fraud and money-laundering conspiracy at CCC.
  • R v Doutrepont & Others - for the 2nd defendant in an alleged investment fraud concerning losses in excess of £12m via complex financial instruments across a number of jurisdictions. Led by Peter Doyle QC.
  • R v Shamba and others – for the first Defendant in 13-handed credit card and benefit fraud. Hundreds of hours of surveillance material was relied upon by the Prosecution to prove that the defendant was the organiser of a theft and fraud ring operating across London causing losses of millions of pounds.  Led by Tom Price (now QC).
  • R -v- El Maghrebi – sole counsel for first defendant in three interconnecting banking frauds that netted hundreds of thousands of pounds in account takeovers involving inside assistance.
  • R v Joanna Heath- the defendant, a serving Customs Officer was alleged to have laundered part of the proceeds of a large-scale tobacco and alcohol conspiracy. 12-handed case that ran for 9 months over two trials, the first collapsing at the end of the Crown's case due to alleged jury- tampering, the second ending in an acquittal. 
  • R v Amin – sole counsel in cigarette-smuggling conspiracy. The evidence included undercover surveillance from Holland and 18 months of investigation.
  • R v Stephen John - (confiscation). The defendant, dubbed "the Raffles burglar" by The Times, specialised in breaking into the homes of the very rich. The seven-figure confiscation proceedings covered property dealings going back 30 years, a gift from a Saudi princess and numerous accounts and transactions.

Crime

2012

  • R v Sullivan & Others - currently instructed as leading counsel in a cannabis conspiracy, witness intimidation and perverting the course of justice allegation where the first defendant is accused of murder. Involves blood splatter, forensics, cell-site, proof of life and other complex areas of evidence. At 9 years’ call one of the youngest leading counsel in England.
  • R v Perry & Others - led junior in this six-handed murder and gun possession trial. Issues of joint enterprise, foresight and knowledge will be crucial to the jury’s deliberations.
  • R v Sussex & Others – led junior in a nine-handed conspiracy to launder the proceeds of Class A drug trafficking. A SOCA prosecution that includes probes, observations and multi-jurisdictional investigations.
  • R v Aristodemou –for the second of seven defendants in this large-scale car-ringing conspiracy described by police as using the most sophisticated cloning techniques thus far encountered in relation to high value cars stolen in a series of domestic burglaries across `London. Acquitted.
  • R v Sadler – smuggling a mobile phone into prison. Acquitted following disclosure failures identified by cross-examination of the prison officers.

2011

  • R v Sullivan & Others - currently instructed as leading counsel in a cannabis conspiracy, witness intimidation and perverting the course of justice allegation where the first defendant is accused of murder. Involves blood splatter, forensics, cell-site, proof of life and other complex areas of evidence.
  • R v Smith & Others - instructed as junior counsel to Courtney Griffiths QC in the planned murder of a man whilst he was visiting HMP Wandsworth. Acquitted.
  • R v Nesbitt & Others – sole counsel for a defendant in a 12-handed armed robbery conspiracy allegation. The case involved extensive surveillance and mobile phone evidence running to over 45,000 pages of used
  • R v Sadzevicius - currently instructed as sole counsel in a burglary and rape matter involving a paranoid schizophrenic complainant, questions of her capacity to consent to the release of her medical records, representation by the Official Solicitor, third party disclosure and abuse of process, in addition to challenge to DNA and hair analysis. Trial now listed for October 2012.
  • R v Walid Salem - counsel for the man who in a cause celebre case suffered brain damage following a beating with a cricket bat by a man he had just tied up and attacked in his own home. In this matter, Salem was charged with an attempted fraud and after Prosecution and Defence obtained 6 psychiatric reports and two experts gave evidence the defendant was finally found unfit to plead and given a supervision order.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/14/jail-brothers-burglar-cricket-bat
  • R v Schubert - sole counsel for defendant charged with attacking another man in broad daylight, at a roundabout on the A406 with a crowbar and causing stab wounds to the head and chest. Acquitted.
  • R v Chaudhary - sole counsel for the defendant who was alleged to have stolen successive BMW X5's, almost run over a police sergeant (initially this was attempted murder and was caught on CCTV) and inadvertently kidnapped a mother and young child. He was found two minutes after crashing the second car, out of breath and 10 feet from clothing matching the description given. Initiating from a challenge to the street identification procedure after a voire dire, the evidence unravelled and a submission of no case to answer was successful and the defendant acquitted.
  • R v Saward & 98 Others - counsel for one of 99 defendants charged with violence arising from Chelsea vs Cardiff football match in February 2010 (Operation Ternhill). Over 100 hours of CCTV from undercover officers, spotters, an air unit and local council and shops formed the basis of evidence. The defendant was one of only two acquitted from the first 77 that came before the court.

2010 

  • R v Ransom – junior counsel in the "Halloween Witches Hat murder". The three-handed case concerned complex issues of causation and pathology including sub-arachnoid haemorrhaging.
  • R v Campbell – the defendant killed three of his five teenage children in 1974 and served sentences for manslaughter. A matter of incest was left to lie on the file. 35 years later allegations of historic abuse by the surviving daughter led to a 19-count indictment and trial. Junior counsel led by Diana Ellis Q.C. Convictions successfully quashed on appeal and retrial is listed for May 2012.

2009

  • R v Khalid – four-handed murder and violent disorder. As junior counsel conducted the cross-examination of the key witness, the 14 year-old brother of the deceased who saw the murder. Acquitted of murder. Also conducted mitigation for sentence on the violent disorder and received two years' imprisonment.
  • R v Zajdel - junior counsel in a murder/manslaughter where the defendant, a young Polish woman, was alleged to have pushed a man into Camden canal and caused him to drown by preventing his escape. Acquitted.
  • R v Ayres & Others - sole counsel for the first defendant in a three-handed burglary trial where the prosecution witnesses were the occupants of a house, one of whom stabbed and killed an alleged accomplice to the burglary.
  • R v Parkes & Others - sole counsel for the first defendant in a six-handed aggravated burglary with a gun. After 8 days of trial successfully applied for a jury discharge due to failures in disclosure and potential cell-site evidence. Shortly afterwards the defendant was killed by a co-defendant against whom he was running a cut-throat defence. Was subsequently instructed to represent another co-defendant, the deceased's younger brother, at the re-trial.

2004 - 08

  • R v  Springer - junior counsel for the first defendant in a three-handed cut-throat murder/robbery that lasted four months. The case involved extensive analysis of mobile phone cell-site evidence and voluminous bad character disclosures made part-way through the defence case. Described by the trial judge, HHJ Jeremy Roberts Q.C. as a case with more twists and turns than he had experienced in over 40 years at the Bar. Acquitted of murder.
  • R v Cullen – attempted murder in which the semi-conscious victim had been placed in the boot of a car driven by the defendants having been punched, kicked and attacked with weapons, driven to a petrol station to buy a billy-can of fuel while quoting the film "Goodfellas".
  • R v Pearson  - (1) appeared for the defendant as junior counsel in a multi-handed red-diesel conspiracy. Following his plea and sentence then (2) appeared alone when he faced a charge of s18 wounding with intent after an alleged assault on a fellow inmate. The complainant was a convicted child-killer and much of the case centred on cross-party bad character applications.
  • R v S and 17 Others - counsel for the defendant, aged 14, who played a part in a "Tarrantino" claw-hammer attack on a 15-year old boy in a Swindon school and faced counts of conspiracy to cause and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. A plea on a very favourable basis was entered on the first day of trial and a sentence of 8 months DTO imposed. The sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney-General as being unduly lenient (see below). http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23431407-schoolboy-battered-to-brink-of-death-with-claw-hammer-in-savage-attack-resembling-tarantino-film.do 
  • R v Rahman and others - sole counsel for the first defendant in a four-handed wounding with intent trial. No positive case was put on behalf of the defendant and his co-defendants went cut-throat against him. Despite having clothing covered in the victim's blood Rahman alone was acquitted following a successful submission of no case to answer. 
  • R v McCarthy - the defendant pleaded to kidnapping his wife from hospital as he wanted to prevent her from undergoing a breast augmentation procedure.http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article27145.ece
  • R v Fabian Dawson – sole counsel for the defendant in a conspiracy to rob betting shops, a linked conspiracy to rob cash-in-transit vans and a post office robbery.
  • R v Headley – sole counsel for the defendant in a five-handed aggravated burglary trial in Bristol.

Court of Appeal

  • R v S and Others (see above) - Attorney-General's Reference of 8-month sentence for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent. Following a day- long hearing the Reference was successfully resisted and sentence remained in place. 
  • R v Webb - overturned ABH conviction on the basis that the judge's directions regarding character and self-defence were wrong and "incomprehensible". High quality of appellate advocacy commended by Lord Justice Moses [2011] EWCA Crim 1270
  • R v Borrego - significant reduction in sentence in death by dangerous driving case [2011] EWCA Crim 696
  • R v Hannan - appeal against sentence. The defendant was convicted after a trial of possession of Class A drugs with the intent to supply them having recently been released from a 6-year sentence for robbery. Successfully argued before LJ Auld that the sentence was wrong in principle, it was quashed and a Drug Treatment and Testing Order substituted. 
  • R v P- appeal against conviction that centred on whether the Trial Judge's error in giving the jury a s.34 adverse inference direction without forewarning counsel was sufficient to render his conviction unsafe [2007] EWCA Crim 2262
  • R v Manton - appeal against sentence. Sentence of 2 years reduced to one year for handling stolen goods.[2005] EWCA Crim 987 

 Associated Work

  • Articles on excluding identification evidence and the unacceptable face of Victim Impact Statements for 25 Bedford Row newsletter
  • Letter to The Times re: dangerous focus on conviction rates in rape cases http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article6741915.ece
  • 7 Bedford Row Criminal 2001 prize for an essay, “Conspiracy”, which argued that the offence should be abolished. 
  • Major Scholar, Inner Temple – 2001/02. 
  • Captain of "University Challenge" team in 1995 (first year of the Paxman era) 
  • First Class honours achieved in every finals paper and for dissertation "Will Jerusalem be the rock upon which a Palestinian State founders?" 
  • In the top 1% of those who graduated from Bristol University in 1995. 

Professional Memberships

  • Proceeds of Crime Lawyers Association (POCLA)
  • Young Fraud Lawyers Association (YFLA)
  • Criminal Bar Association (CBA)

Languages

Polish (fluent)

 Contact

T. 020 7067 1500

E. mgomulka@25bedfordrow.com