Daniel Murray

Barrister

Daniel is a specialist in criminal defence, with significant experience in serious crime, fraud, and regulatory issues. Popular with both solicitors and clients, he has a busy practice, being regularly instructed to act in complex cases and representing defendants charged with a broad range of serious offences including murder, large scale drug importation, gang-related violence, and money laundering.

Daniel is excellent at interpreting complicated phone and data evidence, and has considerable experience with handling cross-jurisdictional issues relating to money laundering. He is quick to grasp the salient details of a case, and his easy manner makes him popular and respected by both professional and lay clients, as well as his peers. Daniel’s genial disposition belies a quick mind and a sharp tongue, and he is not to be underestimated. Since joining 25 Bedford Row, Daniel has developed a loyal following and generated leading work in complex cases.

Daniel’s deep familiarity with the processes, pitfalls and personalities of the current justice system allows him to guide his clients – and witnesses – expertly through a trial, ensuring that their case is effectively and persuasively presented. He is equally comfortable representing white collar clients accused of pharmaceutical counterfeiting or money laundering and those charged with gang-related firearms or drug offences.

In addition to his expertise in serious criminal cases and fraud, Daniel has considerable experience in regulatory proceedings, particularly related to professional discipline in the medical and caring professions. He is regularly instructed to present cases at the Nursing & Midwifery Council, the General Dental Council, and in proceedings brought by the General Medical Council at the Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service. He also has experience defending police officers in Disciplinary Tribunals.

Daniel frequently appears in front of the Court of Appeal. He is qualified for Public Access Work and provides advice to authors, television producers and other creatives in respect of criminal procedure.

Memberships

Criminal Bar Association
British Association of Sport and the Law
Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers
South Eastern Circuit

Education

LLB (Hons) (UCL)
Postgraduate Certificate in Sport and the Law (DeMontford)

Email: dmurray@25bedfordrow.com

Serious Violence & Gun Crime

R v SOO: Central Criminal Court. Acquitted of Murder and Manslaughter after 4 month trial where victim was tortured to death. Mehmet Koray Alpergin: Kidnappers jailed for killing DJ - BBC News
R v ZF: Central Criminal Court. Murder, Attempted Murder and Assisting Offender. Acquitted after 4 month trial. Pair of thugs who shot teenager, 18, at point-blank range before stabbing him in the chest just four years after his older brother was also knifed to death are jailed for 67 years Daily Mail Online
R v FA: Woolwich Crown Court. Attempted Murder. Represented 16 year old accused of attempting to murder another 16 year old boy in a joint enterprise with a third 16 year old boy.
R v LG: Central Criminal Court. Represented the first defendant, accused of Conspiracies to murder, to cause GBH with intent, to supply Class A/B/C, to possess firearms with intent to endanger life, and participation in an organised crime group. What’s on at the Old Bailey on October 22 – Old Bailey Insight & Legal London
R v NH: St Albans Crown Court. Junior counsel to man charged with joint enterprise murder and then covering the crime up. 4 handed trial. Stevenage murder: Men jailed for killing fellow Eritrean migrant - BBC News
R v MZ: Bradford Crown Court. Double Murder. Represented the first person to be extradited from Pakistan in over 11 years. Mohammed Zubair jailed for life for 'savage' Bradford murders - BBC News
R v QZ: Birmingham Crown Court, Murder. Represented a defendant in a case which involved over 3 weeks of Public Interest immunity applications relating to potential evidence from a ‘supergrass’.
R v AA: Croydon Crown Court. Conspiracy to Reactivate Firearms. Represented a man accused with operating a gun factory where decommissioned firearms including an AK-47 were reactivated and ammunition manufactured.
R v LAB & Others: Central Criminal Court. Murder and Violent Disorder. Successfully defended the only defendant to be acquitted of all charges. Murderer Michael Bagnall's courtroom outburst 'I'm glad he's dead' as he is jailed for life Daily Mail Online
R v KS & Other: Central Criminal Court. Murder. Cigarette row killer Kai Steele given 18 years - BBC News
R v CM & DR: St Albans Crown Court. Leading counsel in attempted murder of police officer. Kidnap at gunpoint. firearms and possession of high purity cocaine with intent to supply. M1 police chase pair jailed for life for kidnap and firearms offences - BBC News; St Albans kidnapper appeal against life sentence rejected Herts Advertiser
R v JR: Successfully defended a man charged with possession of a firearms and exploding ammunition. Following submission of a legal argument the prosecution offered no evidence.
R v SK: St Albans Crown Court. Successfully defended a man at St Albans Crown Court charged with perverting the course of justice: the destruction of a murder victim’s sports bag following his disappearance. During the trial, counsel personally traced a crucial defence witness to Taiwan and ensured a statement taken from him was put before the jury. Following a 7-week trial as Junior alone against a KC and Junior, the represented Defendant was the only defendant acquitted.
R v RN: Luton Crown Court Leading Junior defending a man accused of Murder and Violent Disorder: a gang-related fatal stabbing. Following a successful legal argument regarding the lack of sufficient disclosure, the prosecution offered no evidence on the murder charge against the defendant represented. The remaining violent disorder count was successfully defended. Hitchin man jailed for knife fight murder of neighbour - BBC News; Man cleared of murder in Hitchin - BBC News
R v JW: Kidnap and possession of firearm case whereby the defendant had kidnapped his father’s associate at gunpoint and abducted him in the boot of a car in response to his father putting out a contract for his son’s execution following the robbery of a drug consignment. The 18-year-old defendant had already been the subject of a five-year sentence for previous firearms offences and was facing an indeterminate sentence.

Drug Trafficking and Organised Crime

R v RB: Carlisle Crown Court. Operation Matrix The largest ever drug conspiracy prosecution in Cumbria. Represented the Cumbrian end of a large scale national drug conspiracy. Cocaine dealers thwarted in Cumbria receive 106 years behind bars - BBC News
R v KB: Southwark Crown Court. Importation of 1.4 tonnes of cannabis from Ghana through a shipping container. Alleged manipulation of bills of lading and corruption of local Ghanaian customs. National Crime Agency investigation. Gang smuggled cannabis with street value of £4million through Tilbury Docks ITV News Meridian
R v PS: Chelmsford Crown Court. Successfully represented a man accused of importing 2 tonnes of cannabis secreted in the gunwales and hold of 2 imported pleasure boats.
R v TI: Birmingham Crown Court. Represented one of the 2 main defendants in 9 handed, Class A drug conspiracy with probe evidence and covert recordings. Successfully stayed as an abuse of process and reported on front page of The Sunday Times. Drug barons walk free as police hide evidence
R v ON: Aylesbury Crown Court. Operation Gulp 14 counts alleging Class A drug conspiracy, mortgage frauds and multiple incidents of money laundering. Represented the first defendant as leading counsel.
R v YS: Croydon Crown Court. 25 kilo Methamphetamine export to Australia. National Crime Agency investigation. 4 month trial. Drug smugglers from London and Kent convicted after sending £3.5m of crystal meth to Australia The Standard
R v GL: Kingston Crown Court. Leading counsel in Class A drug conspiracy over 1 metric tonne supplied. National Crime Agency investigation. Seven county lines gangsters are jailed for 111 years - in crackdown titled Operation Louboutin Daily Mail Online
R v MAQ: Southwark Crown Court. Leading counsel in large-scale Organised Crime Group multi-handed conspiracy to facilitate the commission of a breach of the UK immigration laws. 60 migrants alleged to have been smuggled into the UK on 18 occasions.
R v AD: Southwark Crown Court. Represented defendant charge with conspiracy to supply 10 kilos of Class A drugs at 96% purity. Despite the cut throat nature of the defence against a privately instructed KC, the co defendant was convicted and AD was not.
R v GM: Large scale Class A and Firearms importation of over 135kilos. Successfully secured only acquittal. Co-defendant received a sentence of 18 years.
R v EC: 11-month conspiracy to supply Class A case. 5,000 hours of surveillance. 11 defendants. This case involved huge documentation and analysis of CCTV and telephone evidence through Adobe software. Resulted in acquittal by jury.
R v BM: Represented the lead defendant charged with importation of 50kg of 90% purity cocaine against privately instructed KCs.

Sexual Offences

R v MM: Leading counsel historic rape of three generations of the same family. 37 count indictment over a 10-year period.
R v KA: Multi handed people trafficking allegation.
R v AA: Birmingham Crown Court. Gang rape allegation in the context of London drug dealing gang exploiting and abusing 13-year-old girl. Involved intense analysis of telephone evidence.
R v CM: Historic inter family rape allegation.
R v JK: Multiple allegations of sexual touching of 10-year-old girl.
R v SA: Harrow Crown Court. Historic rape allegation on 10-year-old stepdaughter.
R v HO: Southwark Crown Court. Successfully defended an international football player on 3 charges of rape.
R v M A and others: Birmingham Crown Court. Multiple rape and kidnapping, False imprisonment and child pornography case. Successfully represented the first defendant of a 5 handed mass rape allegation.

Arson

R v DM and others: Wood Green Crown Court. Instructed as leading counsel in the M1 arson trial concerning a series of fires near or underneath the M1 which resulted in its closure for several days. M1 fire: Teens in five-day north London 'spree of arson' - BBC News
R v TC: Isleworth Crown Court. Successfully defended a man charged with Arson on a service station forecourt.

Court of Appeal

R v DH (2016): successful appeal against sentence for Possession of 40 kilos of Controlled Drugs
R v CM (2015): appeal against discretionary life sentence
R v SJ (2014): appeal against conviction in conspiracy to rob case.
R v DM (2012): successfully defending prosecution appeal against terminatory ruling.
R v Fitch (2011): Child pornography case where Defendant had over 4,500 images on 2 hard drives of level 1-5. Successfully appealed the assessment of the defendant as a dangerous offender under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 by a High Court Judge. His seven-year extended sentence was reduced to three years.

R v SP: Operation Barbados. Southwark Crown Court. VHCC case. Leading counsel in a 24 handed, Organised Crime Group, Money Laundering/Conspiracy to Cheat of over £20 million
R v CR: Guildford Crown Court. £904,000 NHS Trust fraud and related money laundering counts. Relates to fraud perpetrated on Mersey NHS Trust in 2018. 8 handed 8-10 week. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-45748526; https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/nhs-trust-loses-million-pounds-15236676
R v ID: Leeds Crown Court. Alcohol diversion fraud to cheat the Revenue of more than £1 million. Cross-border inter territorial disputes and VAT
R v NA: Southwark Crown Court. Successfully defended the only Company Director acquitted of a long running VAT fraud in the Indian restaurant sector.
R v YP: Leicester Crown Court. Huge conspiracy to defraud leading national institutions which totalled £12million from 12 different successful fraudulent enterprises with a further 7 organisations targeted.
R v CRH: St Albans Crown Court. Fraudulent trading offences contrary to Companies Act 1985 in relation to three different companies operating ticket exchange in unregulated market.
R v EK: Large scale phishing fraud. In excess of 100,000 pages.
R v ES: £15million VAT refund fraud and related confiscation hearing.
R v AP: Massive diversion VAT fraud whereby import licenses were manipulated to provide for a loss to HMRC of more than £25 million during the course of the conspiracy. Those convicted received the maximum sentence. Successfully secured the only acquittal for my client.
R v ST: One of the largest counterfeit tobacco smuggling prosecutions of the last 5 years.
R v SEM: Voluminous case of 2 separate Conspiracies to Defraud over £1.5 million over a 5-year period and related confiscation proceedings.
BSI v SH: regarding dissipation of assets prior to declaration of bankruptcy.
R v KC & Others: EURO30 Million money laundering case. Utilisation of network of Foreign Currency Exchanges across London. Sterling exchanged for high value Euro denominations bought from wholesale foreign currency dealers.
R v F: Long-running fraud committed against a charity. Involved considerations of regulatory law in respect of charity trustees and directors’ duties.
R v Iqbal & Others: Breach of trust, conspiracy to defraud. Bank employees involved in large scale fraudulent CHAPS transfers. Involved detailed analysis of internal banking transactions utilising Adobe software and regulatory aspect of banking practices.
R v BM & Others: Leading junior representing the lead defendant in a multi-handed conspiracy to supply Class A (42 kilos of 89% purity cocaine). Defendant received equivalent of 24-year sentence. The related confiscation proceedings took 3 years to complete.
R v Francis: Represented Sri Lankan Tamil charged with conspiracy to defraud on a huge scale involving the cloning of over 250 credit cards distributed throughout the world from USA to Japan. Featured aspects of money laundering, cross jurisdictional money smuggling. Required detailed analysis of the technology of track data from magnetic strips on the reverse of old-style swipe credit cards and their Chip & Pin replacements and investigation of interceptor and eavesdropping frauds where electronic devices are utilised to record sensitive security data as it is transmitted from reading device to bank. Related confiscation proceedings suggested the crime was funding the Tamil Tigers.
R v Quissema: Organised post office and Giro fraud gang. Sophisticated national operation with multiple false identities claiming in multiple locations across the UK. Represented the lead defendant in the crown court and Court of Appeal.
R v Gombe: Cross-jurisdictional fraud perpetrated on notable Middle Eastern national bank and internationally renowned broadcaster. This case involved analysis of highly complex international banking documents, foreign currency regulations and cross-jurisdictional conflicts. Regulatory laws of banking, currency controls and cross-jurisdictional trademark disputes.
R v Biao: Six handed organised crime counterfeit conspiracy where five of the six defendants absented themselves from the trial. Defendant acquitted by the jury in his absence.
R v Ashmere: Large-scale car ringing and export conspiracy. Involved ringing cars clocking them, giving them new identities then selling them here and abroad in Iraq and Eastern Europe.

Regulatory Proceedings

Significant experience in defending Police misconduct cases.
General Medical Council: Represented doctors in MTPS proceedings and advised prior to proceedings and after sanctions imposed.
Seconded to the Nursing and Midwifery Council: competence, misconduct and conviction cases. Interim Orders. High Court extensions.
R v AH: Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency case. Largest prosecution of its kind. Successfully defended Pharmacist as Leading Counsel.
Commissioner for Metropolitan Police v Waya: This was a successful defence of forfeiture proceedings but also a successful application for costs in the teeth of fierce resistance by the Metropolitan Police.
General Dental Council: Defending registrants accused of regulatory breaches.

Trademark & IP Cases

Represented leading international furniture designer in respect of global brand protection.
R v Bomolo: Counterfeit luxury goods (Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Chanel) conspiracy to import from China to Africa through the UK.
R v Halai and others: Largest ever counterfeit prosecution by Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority. Leading counsel representing the alleged second in command of the architect of the largest ever pharmaceutical counterfeit prosecution by Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA). 9-month trial described as “one of the most complex counterfeit medicines trials to be held in the UK.” by the Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau. Subject of much publicity in the national media. Resulted in a hung jury. The retrial ended in a negotiated settlement and successfully defending an application for recovery of defendant’s costs of over £250,000. This case required a thorough understanding of complex pharmaceutical regulations, wholesale dealing licensing obligations, grey market EU import law and cross-jurisdictional, intercontinental banking regulations to combat money laundering allegations. It also concerned allegations concerning contravening trademarks resulted and the seizure of over £1,500,000 of counterfeit medicines and the unravelling of the biggest conspiracy to supply counterfeit medicines encountered in the UK.

Disciplinary Cases

Police Appeals Tribunal oral hearing. Only 5% of appeals result in an invitation to present the case at an oral hearing.
Police Appeal Tribunal. Drafting and presenting successful 14,000-word appeal notice.
Re: GT: Police Disciplinary Tribunal. 5-day Gross Misconduct Tribunal. Empress State Building.
R v R CH: Representing a professional golf player charged with money laundering and dishonesty offences. Successfully argued that the confiscation regime should not apply and therefore saved the client hundreds of thousands of pounds which would have meant his house would have had to be sold.
UDRP: Representing international rugby union player in the retrieval of an unauthorised domain name registered in Gibraltar by Russian registrants.