Chris Smyth - Head of Crime

Chris brings his analytical and thorough approach to prosecuting and defending complex fraud and is able to manage document heavy cases. He recently represented one of six defendants, amongst whom was a former international footballer, charged with a multi-million pound fraud involving the supposed provision of apprenticeships to football clubs. This was a VHCC case where the evidence was in excess of 230,000 pages, with unused material in excess of that.

In a Post Office fraud, his submission was upheld that it was an abuse to prosecute a post office manager charged with large scale fraud relating to discrepancies in takings hidden in weekly balancing. Delay and resulting prejudice had arisen owing to lack of comprehension on the part of the police and prosecution of the Post Office accounting system.

Chris successfully prosecuted a husband and wife who used a declaration of trust and power of attorney to disguise their dishonesty in transferring substantial equity and re-mortgage monies away from elderly relatives.

He also successfully prosecuted a financial advisor who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from elderly and vulnerable clients under the veil of making complicated investments.

Chris has dealt with confiscation proceedings involving complex property and contractual issues where the sums at stake exceeded £1m.  He acted for a defendant who sold his property the day before a restraint order was imposed subject to a conditional sale agreement with opaque option to buy back, where the court had to determine the extent and value of any interest retained.

Chris prosecutes and defends sexual offending of the most serious nature. He is regularly instructed in severe cases that have included historical offences, multiple complaints and young and vulnerable victims.

• Successfully defended a man accused of trafficking women from Poland for prostitution, false imprisonment and rape;
• Secured acquittal of a woman charged with serious sexual abuse of her daughter by exposing how the father was exploiting them both;
• Defended a young woman in a case prompting much media interest, herself groomed on the internet from the age of 13, who engaged in penetrative activity on her very young relatives and distributed the images she took;
• Successfully prosecuted a physiotherapist who was charged with sexually assaulting his clients whilst on the job.
• Defended an elderly and infirm defendant charged with rape and other sexual offences against his own children and then grandchildren over a period of 40 years;
• Defended another elderly man charged with historic sexual abuse of his daughter, who was subsequently murdered, and grandchildren, where one granddaughter recorded part admissions of the abuse of the daughter;
• Following guilty pleas to sexual and other offending against three young victims, secured reduction in sentence on of 7 years at the Court of Appeal.

Chris has been involved in many cases ranging from common assault to murder.  Through-out his career he has built up a large amount of experience in this area leading to instructions in most serious cases of this nature. He has experience in both prosecuting and defending in these areas

• On Chris’ Switch to the bar, he was instructed to defend in a multi-handed murder at Bristol Crown Court, where the deceased had suffered in excess of 100 individual wounds and all defendants were found in a room with the body;
• Defended a youth charged with section 18 GBH in what was apparently an unprovoked attack from behind, causing serious head injuries;
• Defended a man charged with attempted murder in Swindon after an altercation that resulted in the victim being stabbed multiple times. This resulted in the victim being in ICU for an extended period of time.
• Defended a man charged with section 18 GBH on his best friend when both in drink where the defendant brandished a samurai sword and the victim sustained injuries after he tried to defend himself.
• Successfully prosecuted a man charged with arson with intent to endanger life, along with stalking offences, after he set multiple fires at the same address endangering a woman and her autistic child.

Chris has increasingly been instructed to defend and prosecute in large drugs operations across the Western Circuit. These have included large county lines/national operations run by Organised Crime Groups to street level dealers in local areas. These cases often involve vast amounts of telephone and surveillance intel, PII as well as confiscation proceedings after the event.

• Chris defended one of six defendants charged within Operation Marauder 1. This was a covert operation run by the Specialist Crime Department Wiltshire Police. This was a county lines operation run between London and Swindon.
• Chris also defended one of five defendants charged within Operation Marauder 2. The case was tried in Bristol Crown Court this  summer and Chris secured an acquittal for his client after 5 weeks of trial. This was all part of the same county lines operation from London to Swindon, transporting large quantities of cocaine between the two.
• Chris prosecuted one defendant’s trial in Operation Greenfield 1. The case had 12 defendants all together, however this defendant’s trial was split off from the others. This was a large operation heard in Bristol in relation to the transportation of cocaine and cannabis.
• Defended one of nine defendants in a case concerning the supply of class A drugs in Weston-super-Mare.

Chris has extensive experience from his time as a solicitor of defending motoring cases in the Magistrates Court. This has included trials of careless driving, failing to stop and report after an accident, speeding and driving with excess alcohol/being drunk in charge where procedural issues and back calculations have arisen. He has argued special reasons and/or exceptional hardship for not disqualifying and mitigated against disqualification where the offence itself was sufficiently serious to justify that. He represented clients charged at the particular time with the highest recorded speeding and highest level of alcohol when driving.

He prosecutes and defends cases of causing death by dangerous and careless driving. He secured the acquittal of an ambulance driver rushing to an accident who killed another driver on route. He was defence counsel in a leading case on sentencing for causing death by careless driving: R v Smith.

Chris has carried over this work into his practice as a barrister and can offer instruction by public access. He has also appeared before the Traffic Commissioner’s court on a number of cases.