Victor John's areas of expertise are General & Serious Crime, Fraud and Regulatory.
Victor John is an Associate Solicitor at Neumans LLP having initially been called to the Bar by The Honourable Society of Middle Temple in 2007.
He has rapidly established himself as a critical member of the criminal team, since joining the firm in the autumn of 2006. With over 10 years experience in criminal law, Victor undertakes instruction in privately funded and legal aid cases. He is well liked and respected by clients and other legal professionals for his enthusiasm, dedication and no non-sense approach to his work. Victor has also cut his teeth on some of the most difficult, complex and high profile criminal cases.
Specialising in General and Serious Crime, Victor has and continues to develop extensive experience in criminal defence work, ranging from petty offences to more serious offences such as murder, white collar crime, benefit fraud, confiscation, extradition, firearms offences and rape cases. His cases are predominantly based in the Youth and Crown Courts as well as the Court of Appeal.
Victor has developed a keen interest and specialism in Confiscation and cash forfeiture. Confiscation and cash forfeiture proceedings are becoming more common within the Court system and Victor has worked on some of the largest and novel confiscation proceedings such as R v Patel: one of the largest ever local authority confiscation orders imposed under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 further to a joint application by Hackney Trading Standards and the Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART). R v Khan and others: defending an application for a confiscation order involving an alleged benefit in excess of £1 million. R v Shahzad: successfully obtained a Certificate of Inadequacy and further to arguments at the Crown Court, successfully applied for a variation of the client’s Confiscation Order from £64,257.62 to £9,100 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4095361.stm. He is also currently working in the case of R v Alyas: which involves issues of third party rights and R v Duncan and another: where there are issues of properties in negative equity.
Over the last few years, Victor has undertaken instruction in a number of Extradition cases where individuals have been sought by foreign countries to face criminal proceedings or to serve sentences if they have already been convicted. Victor has advised at all stages of the proceedings, from pre-arrest (making enquiries into whether an extradition request has been made) to advice at the police station on arrest and representation at the Magistrates’ Court and High Court. Victor has had several appeals against extradition at the High Court including the reported case of Hewitt and Woodward v Spain: where the arguments were on the grounds of the validity of the European Arrest Warrant, Human Rights and Oppression on the grounds of the client’s mental health and the case of Poland v Przybyl: in which he successfully made representations to the foreign judicial authority to withdraw an extradition request based on the fact that it transpired to be a trivial offence where a fine would suffice.
Victor also acts in very sensitive cases such as sexual offences. He has represented persons accused of various sexual offences from minor allegations of sexual touching to rape. He understands that cases of a sexual content have a big impact on both the defendant as well as their family members. To that end, Victor works tirelessly to assist defendants and their families. Cases that he has been involved in include R v A and others: defending a client aged 15 who was accused along with 4 others (under the age 15) of gang raping a 14 year old girl http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23889110-three-boys-convicted-of-gang-raping-girl-13.do and R v Katambwa: involving the alleged rape of a 14 year old.
Victor is an Accredited Police Station Representative and attends police stations in London and across the South East. He understands and is sympathetic to the fact that quite often being arrested is a new experience for many clients. Clients can be assured that he will robustly advance their rights and ensure that their legal position is protected at all times.
Victor Initially undertook a Computing degree at the Glamorgan University (Cardiff) before converting and graduating in Law (LL.B, Hons) in 2005. He subsequently completed the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law (City University, London) in 2007 before completing a Commercial Law Masters (LL.M) with Glamorgan University in 2008. |
