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Education

LL.B Hons & Diploma in Social Studies, University of Bristol
 

Practice

Criminal defence, Mr Tansey has considerable expertise & experience in conducting grave cases of all types in particular Terrorism, Murder, Espionage, Organised Crime, Drug Trafficking, Serious Fraud & Money Laundering, Blackmail & Armed Robbery.

Rock Tansey QC is associated with the following areas of expertise:

Crime 
General Fraud
Human Rights Law
Inquest and Public Inquiries
International Criminal law
Terrorism
White Collar Crime

Cases

Fraud and Financial Regulation

  • R -v- Darcy - Millennium Dome fraud.
  • R -v- Addington Smith - £25 million time-share fraud.
  • R -v- Pilz - SFO fraud - conspiracy to defraud and theft of £16 million from a group of International investors in a High Yield Investment Programme.
  • R -v- South - fraudulent evasion of VAT.
  • R -v- Foulk - fraudulent evasion of VAT.
  • R -v- X - advising about the powers of the SFO, the right to silence, tax evasion and confiscation.

Proceeds of Crime Act

  • R -v- Castallanos - Penaloza & Others – multi million pound money laundering case.
  • R -v- Patel - money laundering.

Terrorism

  • R -v- Bouhrama – The Ricin Terror Case - defendants acquitted of charges relating to the so-called Ricin Plot. Alleged Muslim fundamentalist plot to poison an infinite number of innocent civilians.
  • R -v- Q & others - preparation of a Terrorist Act.
  • R -v- Saleem - solicitation to incite racial hatred. Danish Cartoon Case.
  • R -v- Sulayman Bilal-Zain-Ul-Abidin - inviting people to receive weapons training contrary to Terrorism Act 2000. The first prosecution under the Terrorism Act.
  • R -v- Ladd - Terrorism in Wales.
  • R -v- Said - attempted murder of the Israeli Ambassador.
  • R -v- Abu Wardeh - bombing of the Israeli Embassy.
  • R -v- Mohammed Showaib - highjacking of a plane in Afghanistan.
  • Birmingham Six Case - 1st civil proceeding in High Court and the Court of Appeal.
  • Many terrorist cases concerning the Provisional IRA & INLA.

Crime

  • R v SE conspiracy to execute a night club doorman in revenge for an incident some weeks before.  
  •  R v Frank Crowther – stabbing of  frail dementia- suffering wife 58 times due to the strain of caring for her.  The extremely frail defendant couldn’t bear her suffering any longer and after taking her life also tried to take his own.
  • R -v- Mattar Sallah & Another-Defendant was a squatter alleged to have murdered a potential home buyer having left a rusty knife embedded in the skull of a father-of-two and was cleared of all charges.
  • R v   Joshua Williams -Operation Castorland was commenced after the victim was stabbed in the head at the Windmill Park Estate in Southall in September 2007. Ten defendants were tried for his murder from October 2008 for three months at the Old Bailey. The killing arose out of a feud between a London street gang called ‘Money Drugs Power’ (M.D.P.) and Gritset. M.D.P. members wanted to avenge a robbery of one of its members and went to the estate en mass, wearing a uniform of blue bandanas and armed, on buses. Once there, they marched through the estate. The deceased was not a member of any gang and appeared to have been selected by mistake. There was mobile phone cell site evidence, expert forensic evidence, extensive background material from the internet and CCTV from the buses. Our client was in a cut throat with the other defendants. He was seen on the return journey with the murder weapon.
  • R -v- Peter Reis-Relvas-Representing the alleged ringleader of a gang of masked robbers who kicked and stabbed a music student to death in a botched bid to steal cannabis from him, all seven members of the gang were said to have attacked the victim who eventually died from a seven inch stab wound as horrified neighbours looked on helplessly.
  • R -v- Ashley Rookwood-First on the indictment of five defendants charged with murder and violent disorder. The victim was fatally stabbed after he and members of a gang had been involved in a gang fight while on their way to watch a fireworks display in Mitcham. Three other boys were also seriously injured in the battle. The victim was said to be training to represent the UK at the 2012 Olympics. There was substantial evidence in this case with over 100 witnesses.
  • R -v- Conaghan & Others-The contract killing of notorious career criminal George Francis.
  • R -v- Gun & Others – he headed a massive people smuggling network. Described by Scotland Yard as its largest ever investigation into human smuggling.
  • R -v- Moreira & Others – multi handed murder.
  • R -v- C & Others – contract gangland murder.
  • R -v- Foster – victim stabbed her husband’s lover 17 times. The defendant claimed her intention was in fact to commit suicide in victim's room. The victim was left blinded in one eye.
  • R -v- Denic & Others – A £23 million Bond Street Jewellery Robbery.  By an Eastern European Criminal gang known in the media as the Pink Panther gang.
  • R -v- McGrady – murder of schoolgirl, body dismembered.
  • R -v- K – drugs related gang murder. One of the longest running murder cases at the Old Bailey.
  • R -v- Winter – death by dangerous driving of step father and two children after defendant’s car ploughed through the central reservation on A23.
  • R -v- Pat Arrowsmith - incitement to disaffection.
  • R -v- Roper - incitement to disaffection.
  • New Cross Fire Inquest - 14 young people died.
  • R -v- McKenny & Pinfold - notorious murder trial in 1980 and successful appeal in October 2003.
  • R -v- B - murder of PC Blakelock during the riots in Tottenham.
  • R -v- Tyler - murder of a child by paedophiles.
  • R -v- Smith - KGB spy selling secrets to the Russians.
  • R -v- Bravo - attempting to sell secrets to the Russians.
  • R -v- Parr - attempting to sell secrets to the Russians.
  • R -v- Witchello - blackmail of Heinz PLC by an ex police officer.
  • R -v- Wang Gung Zhu - snakehead trial re people smuggling.
  • R -v- Greenfield - Angry Brigade trial.

International Criminal Law

  • The Prosecutor -v- Momir Nickolic (ICTY) – persecutions, crimes against humanity in which 7000 Muslim males were massacred  at Srebrenica.  

Inquest and Public Enquiries

  • Scarman Public Inquiry - events at Red Lion Square 1974.

Human Rights Law

  • Bailey -v- London Borough of Southwark in the Court of Appeal - the rights of squatters.

Associated Work

First chairman of the European Criminal Bar Association. A passionate interest in developments in European Criminal Law. In 1997 helped to create the European Criminal Bar Association of defence lawyers (ECBA) to enable European defence lawyers to meet and consider major legal developments in criminal law in Europe.

Organised major conferences of ECBA in Strasbourg, Rome, The Hague, Athens, London, Prague and Dublin. Key issues considered included Corpus Juris, European Public Prosecutor, Eurojust & the coordination of European Prosecution, Mutual recognition of Judgements, Privilege in the context of proposed amendments to the EC Money Laundering Directive1991, Confiscation of assets, Double Jeopardy, European arrest warrant & EC proposals on Terrorism Law.

Directories

Recommended as a leading silk in crime in Chambers UK 2012.

“Has an excellent reputation”
“A leading silk in London”
“A great defender”
“Immensely experienced... whose quality of work justifies his ranking”
"A fighter who battles to the last breath on behalf of his client"

Contact

T. 020 7067 1500

E. rtansey@25bedfordrow.com