District Judge Martyn Royall commits Contempt of Court

DOMINIC BELL

Dominic Bell. Call: 1992. 
Interested in instructing Mr Bell? Please call 020 7353 6802

Dominic Bell has practised exclusively in criminal litigation for the last 24 years and appears exclusively for the defence. Dominic’s practice is that of serious crime and he now invariably acts as leading counsel due to the serious nature of the cases in which he is instructed.

Dominic has a real passion for fairness and has a reputation for being a fighter who is not afraid to pursue his client’s case utterly fearlessly, both in and out of Court. He has a particular interest in prosecution disclosure, or the lack of it, always being determined to ensure that prosecutors properly comply with their duty.

Many of his cases have an international dimension and he is able to assist his instructing solicitors in the gathering of evidence in foreign jurisdictions. In the last few years, Dominic has travelled to Colombia, Barbados, St Lucia, India, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

Dominic is a fearless cross-examiner; best demonstrated perhaps over the course of three trials in 2010 as leading counsel for the main defendant in Operation Retriever (the media-dubbed ‘Pakistani child groomers’). His client was charged with many rapes, several false imprisonments and sexual assaults. The case attracted a considerable amount of publicity both nationally and internationally, most of it inaccurate. Dominic’s dedication to his client’s defence over three trials is a matter of record.

He has particular recent experience in defending prosecutions and restraint proceedings brought by HM Revenue and Customs and BIS (or the DTI as it was).

In 2011 he appeared for the first defendant is a £50 million MTIC fraud (Operation Duma) and in 2012, he appeared for a Company Director in a £38 million Missing Trader fraud involving the trading of Carbon Credits (Operation Tulipbox).

His real skill is in understanding complex factual issues, identifying what the important issues are in a case and thus identifying the battle ground for the trial. Dominic has appeared for the defence in Operation Vivace (the 21st of July bombings) and Operation Overamp (alleged weapons training) where he was leading Counsel.

Currently he is instructed in one of the largest prosecutions brought by BIS, acting for a Company Director charged with many counts of Fraudulent Trading. He is also due to appear for defendants in 2 very large conspiracies to supply drugs.