David McNeill

5 St Andrew's Hill

David prosecutes and defends serious crime. He has wide experience prosecuting and defending complex, multi-handed cases, both alone and led. Recent cases have included prosecuting money launderers responsible for defrauding elderly victims and remitting the proceeds to ISIS in Syria, prosecuting the most serious VAT and duty evasion cases for HMRC, defending against the FCA in a corporate finance mis-selling case, acting for the NCA in the landmark Chatwani case which laid down new remedies for defective search warrants, advising Jersey prosecutors on a large scale financial misconduct prosecution, and prosecuting four Gambian diplomats in the most significant case involving the waiver of immunity in recent decades.

He is instructed to advise pre-charge or at the investigatory stages (search warrants, etc) of serious and complex cases, including at judicial review.

David specialises in asset forfeiture and confiscation cases, where his common law background gives him a cross-over expertise in both civil and criminal law which is essential. Recent cases have involved obtaining £1.4m confiscation orders for the NCA in Birmingham in a case arising from the importation of 2 tons of heroin, and representing the CPS in the leading case on the interrelationship between restraint orders and funds paid into court in civil proceedings.

He has a particular knowledge of disclosure, having been instructed on major cases as disclosure or independent counsel.

He speaks and reads Mandarin Chinese.

Contributed to

1

Disclosure time limits in criminal proceedings—checklist

Checklists

This Checklist summarises the time limits which apply to the disclosure of evidence in the criminal courts in England and Wales. It explains the time limits which apply to the service of the initial details of the prosecution case (IDPC) including if any disclosure management document (DMD) is served, the prosecution’s initial duty of disclosure under section 3 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (CPIA 1996), the service of defence statement, defence witness requirements and to the service of evidence in compliance with the prosecution’s continuing duty to disclose under CPIA 1996, s 7A.

Corporate Crime