Hannah Edwards

Barrister

Hannah Edwards is a highly sought after junior specialising in serious crime, complex fraud, and regulatory matters.

Hannah is an articulate and persuasive advocate ranked in tier 1 of the Legal 500 as a “rising star”. She is quickly able to assimilate complex information particularly in paper-heavy cases and is both forensic in her attention to detail and meticulous in her preparation. As a result, Hannah is regularly instructed in high-profile criminal cases involving complex legal issues and substantial disclosure. In the last year alone, Hannah has been instructed in multiple cases of homicide, a conspiracy to import £200million of class A drugs and a conspiracy to sell over £1.5million of counterfeit goods.

Hannah has experience in defending high-profile prosecutions by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and other regulatory bodies and deals with all cases with the utmost sensitivity.

Prior to joining Chambers, Hannah worked at Brett Wilson LLP, assisting with the firm’s serious fraud, asset recovery and private criminal defence practice. Hannah gained exposure to cases where civil claims ran parallel to criminal prosecutions and frequently acted for defendants who were subject to worldwide freezing injunctions.

Testimonials

“Hannah is unbelievably bright and committed to her cases” Rising Star: Crime, Legal 500 2024
“A junior barrister who will for sure go all the way” Rising Star: Crime, Legal 500 2024

Qualifications

Bar Professional Training Course, University of the West of England (Very Competent)
BA in Jurisprudence, The University of Oxford

Associations and Memberships

The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn – Albion Richardson Scholar (2015)
Criminal Bar Association
Women in Criminal Law
South Eastern Circuit

Publications

Bail: breaches and coronavirus, Westlaw

Homicide and serious violence

R v K – Led junior defending youth in multi-handed murder in Tottenham.
R v T – Led junior in multi-handed murder. Client was the only defendant acquitted of both murder and manslaughter.
R v T – Led junior in high profile murder of a youth on a London bus.
R v S - Attempted murder – Acted for defendant charged in a multi-handed attempted murder. Secured bail in the magistrates’ court.
R v C – Aggravated burglary involving the use of a knife and ransacking of property. CCTV showed the defendant entering the address. Defence raised was that the burglary had been a set up. Defendant unanimously acquitted following trial.
R v LW – GBH with intent (stabbing) - Several applications for disclosure resulted in the Crown offering no evidence.
R v BP - GBH with intent (stabbing) - Negotiated a plea to ABH and secured a suspended sentence.
R v J – GBH - Defendant acquitted following trial. The trial centred on the issues of mistaken belief and defence of another. The jury deliberated for a total of 14 minutes before returning a unanimous not guilty verdict.

Serious organised crime

R v Z – Led junior for first defendant in conspiracy to import over £200million of class A drugs in what the NCA termed the “largest inland seizure” to date.
R v M – Led junior in conspiracy to supply over 25kg of class A drugs through Encrochat in one of the first prosecutions resulting from Operation Venetic.
R v H – defending client accused of conspiring to steal vehicles used in double-shooting.
R v V – defending client accused of supplying over 90kg of cannabis.
R v D – PWITS (Class A) – Defendant unanimously acquitted following trial.
R v BD – PWITS (Class A) – Secured a suspended sentence for defendant who pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs on the day of trial and was found to have played a “significant role”.

Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking

R v A – Led junior in conspiracy to control prostitution valued in excess of £1million.
R v D – Led junior in conspiracy to traffic Romanian nationals to the UK for exploitation and related money laundering offences – successful half time submission and all charges dismissed.
R v C – PWITS (Class A) – Crown offered no evidence following multiple expert reports and defence raised under s.45 Modern Slavery Act
R v CP –Youth defendant acquitted of 4 x possession of a bladed article and 1 x possession of class A drugs following a two-day modern slavery trial. Defendant was fifteen and had learning disabilities.

Sexual Offences

R v H – led junior in three historic kidnaps and indecent assaults on school children in woods in 2002 and 2004. The investigation spanned two decades and involved a nationwide appeal on Crimewatch. The Crown offered no evidence in relation to two counts following a successful application to exclude evidence.
R v DB – Sexual assault - Defendant acquitted following trial.
R v G – Sexual assault –defendant charged with sexually assaulting a woman whilst completing maintenance work at her home address. Trial resulted in a hung jury and the Crown offered no evidence at the re-trial.

R v FA – Hannah represented one of four defendants in a private prosecution brought by Wolverhampton Trading Standards alleging a large-scale conspiracy to possess and market copyright infringing articles valued in excess of £1.9million and an international money-laundering operation. This was a complex case paper case (no DCS) involving over 120,000 pages of served evidence and a substantial volume of banking evidence across multiple trading entities.
R v C – Secured suspended sentence for defendant convicted of fraud valued at £120,000. The fraud involved abuse of trust through power of attorney.

Confiscation

R v B – Successfully resisted the Crown’s s.22 application to vary the defendant’s confiscation order. This involved both written submissions and a full contested hearing.
R v A – Conspiracy to defraud and money laundering - Secured a reduction in the benefit figure from c.£690.00 to c.£50,000.
R v B – Drugs conspiracy (class A) – Secured a reduction in benefit figure from c.£450,000 to c.£185,000.