- London 020 7067 1500
- Email clerks@25bedfordrow.com
Colin Wells
An excellent fraud junior who is extremely hard working and very bright. He is the go-to person on abuse of process matters. Chambers UK
Advising advocates, litigators, solicitors and direct access lay and professional clients on:
- pre-charge criminal investigations
- criminal procedure (including abuse of process, disclosure and private prosecutions),
- the merits of and preparing criminal costs applications (including Senior Courts Costs Office and Court Of Appeal Criminal Division criminal costs cases)
- criminal liability of private individual and company defendants (fraud, money laundering and confiscation)
- with associated court based advocacy.
Colin's criminal defence expertise includes Fraud, Money Laundering, Confiscation and related Regulatory proceedings and Criminal Cost Appeals.
2002-2008 - Licensed Advocate on Isle of Man
2009 - Licensed for Direct Access Work
Given training seminars to practitioners and law enforcement, domestically and abroad (for the European Criminal Bar Association, the University of Auckland, the New South Wales Bar, Police and Immigration officers in British Virgin Islands, Continuing Legal Education Committee of Trinidad), on criminal procedure and costs matters.
Publications and Seminars
- Enact the Hillsborough Law without Delay, New Law Journal, 2024
- Abuse of Process (4th Edition), Oxford University Press, 2023
- Confiscation proceedings and civil recovery: proportionality and abuse of process, CDR - Fraud Asset tracing and Recovery - March 2021
- Article of PPE in Legal Aid cases, Costs Lawyer, May/June 2020
- PDF versus Excel basis for page count calculation in PPE disputes, CrimeLine, May 2020
- When Does a Trial Begin for Purposes of Legal Aid Funding?, CrimeLine, February 2020
- Unexplained Wealth Orders - now being obtained and used, CrimeLine, January 2019
- Disclosure Failures and Abuse of Process, January 2018
- Right to Silence, July 2017
- Fraud Presentation, July 2017
- Human Trafficking Talk, January 2017
- Abuse of Process (3rd Edition), Oxford University Press, 2017
- Abuse of Process Update, The Criminal Law Friendly Society, London, 13th May 2016
- The LCCSA Conference Madrid, October 2015
- The Leveson Review 2015, 6th May 2015
- "Civil/criminal contempt:R v O'Brien" for the Fraud Lawyers Association, 6th October 2014
- Fraud, Bribery and Money Laundering Sentencing Guidelines 2014 at LCCSA European Conference Alicante, Spain, 2014
- "Fraud: a practitioners handbook", Bloomsbury 2014
- "The right to a fair trial, access to justice and state funding": Operation Cotton falls foul of Grayling cuts.
- Jury Selection, Protection and Misconduct, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly Criminal Bar Quarterly, Issue 12, Spring 2013, p.1, 25th January 2014
- Transfer of Representation Order, Criminal and Law Justice Weekly, 21st December 2013
- Human Trafficking and Children, LCCSA, 18th September 2013
- Human Trafficking and Sensible Prosecuting,Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, Vol.38, p.615-617 - 21st September 2013
- The Annual Human Rights and Criminal Law seminar, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand: New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, 1)R v Abu Qatada - admissibility of torture evidence 2) R v Abu Hamza - media reporting and abuse of process 3)R v LN - Human trafficking and article 26 Council of Europe anti-trafficking convention, 27th July 2013
- The Right to Silence - A Practical Approach, paper presented to the New South Wales Public Defenders Office, Sydney, Australia, 4th July 2013
- Costs Orders against the CPS, 378 (2011) 175 JPN, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly
- Tainted Gifts under the Criminal Justice Act 1988
- Prosecution Witness Disclosure, 282 (2011) 175 JPN, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, 14 May 2011
- Prosecution Misconduct (R v Warren) 234 (2011) 175 JPN, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, April 2011
- Fitness to Plead 162 (2011) 175 JPN, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, 19 March 2011
- Reaction to Accusation 98 (2011) 175 JPN, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, 28 February 2011
- Sensible Prosecuting & Article 26 (Human Trafficking), 34 (2011) 175 JPN, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly
- Defence witness notification Aggressive Compliance, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, 13 November 2010
- Police & CPS on Juries, Criminal Bar Quarterly, April 2008
- Representation in Confiscation Proceedings & Unfairness, Criminal Bar Quarterly Issue 3
- Systematic disclosure failures at HMRC, Solicitors Journal, 8th January 2008
- Abuse of Process as an appeal ground, Criminal Bar Quarterly, March 2007
Education
- BSc (Economics and Law) - Plymouth Polytechnic
- MA (Industrial Relations and Employment Law) - Warwick University