Sally-Ann Hales is an experienced advocate who defends and prosecutes across the full range of criminal law, with particular experience in the two very distinct fields of serious fraud and sexual offences. She is on the Crown Prosecution Service specialist fraud and rape lists, is a Grade 3 prosecutor on the CPS list of External Advocates and on the SFO "A" list. She is regularly instructed by both the Fraud Prosecution Service and Serious Fraud Office and is on the Bar Standards Board panel of prosecutors.

In addition to her prosecution work Sally-Ann has defended in complex money laundering, fraud and drug trafficking matters as well as the whole range of sexual offences both against adults and children. Her practise in sexual offences has included “cold case” prosecutions arising from the development of DNA identification techniques and many cases of historic allegations made by children. She is very familiar with the use of special measures for vulnerable witnesses and has represented a significant number of defendants with mental health problems.

 

Sally-Ann has considerable experience in the preparation and presentation of complex cases necessitating the assimilation of relevant facts from vast quantities of paperwork. She was first instructed by the Serious Fraud Office as junior counsel in the case of R v Regan and others (1999-2003) - the Co-operative Wholesale Society corruption trial. This was a case which involved extradition, accomplice witnesses and went to the Administrative Court on the issue of whether a director could be indicted for theft from his own company. Sally-Ann has been instructed by the SFO in four investigations since both as a led junior and on her own and is presently instructed in the prosecution of commercial mortgage frauds valued in excess of £45 million.  She is also instructed to defend in cases prosecuted by the SFO, most recently the failed prosecution of pharmaceutical companies.

 

Fraud work has encompassed the obtaining and use of evidence from abroad, jurisdictional issues, extradition and European Arrest Warrants. She is familiar with expert evidence in many areas; ongoing cases involve the use of DNA evidence, voice analysis, forensic accounting, telephone and cell site analysis. Having prosecuted and defended in a number of cases involving serious and organised crime has given her experience of RIPA 1 material and other PII and sensitive issues, including the use of informants and covertly obtained material. She is conversant with asset forfeiture and confiscation.

Appellate work has included appeals against sentence and conviction in the Court of Appeal and judicial review proceedings in the Divisional Court. Advisory work includes instruction as Independent Counsel to advise on LPP issues and attending searches in that capacity. She has also advised the Independent Police Complaints Commission and has provided training on serious sexual offences (2008), 'dawn raids' (2004) and the Serious and Organised Crime Act 2005 (2007).  She is on the Prosecution Panel for the Bar Standards Board.

 

Sally-Ann is now regularly instructed as leading counsel and has prosecuted Queen's Counsel on a number of occasions in trials of fraud and serious sexual offences. She is consistently included in the professional directories and is ranked in the 2009 Chambers UK directory for fraud, where she is described as a “tough and impressive cross-examiner with a gritty style that appeals to juries.”

Recent Illustrative Cases

R v Naseem 2006-2009 (Confiscation proceedings ongoing)
Instructed as leading counsel by the Fraud Prosecution Service. The defendant was sentenced to a total of 9 years imprisonment for offences involving the obtaining of over £8 million from various banks by deception. Following guilty pleas part way through a trial the Court conducted a week long Newton Hearing in relation to the defendant’s mental health at the time of the commission of the frauds. Having heard from a number of doctors the court rejected the defendant’s claim that he had been delusional at the time he committed the offences.

R v Thompson 2008/2009

Defending in a three handed conspiracy to handle stolen goods valued at £1.5m. The defendant’s conviction was quashed following a successful appeal to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that the trial Judge should have allowed a half-time submission of no case to answer and/or had misdirected the jury in relation to the doctrine of recent possession

Instructed as leading counsel to prosecute historic allegations of serious sexual and physical abuse by the Defendant upon his common law wife and step-daughters. The Defendant was convicted of 25 out of 26 counts.

Instructed by the Fraud Prosecution Service three months before the trial was due to start to prosecute allegations of a conspiracy to defraud BT to the value of £1.7m in the context of a much wider investigation of identity fraud. The preparation of detailed schedules, admissions and analysis of telephone evidence provoked both Defendants (represented by QC and juniors) to plead guilty a week into the trial.

 

Instructed by the CPS to prosecute a 'serial' rapist who posed as a taxi driver and had raped three young women. The Defendant (represented by QC and junior) pleaded guilty following legal argument relating to the admissibility of bad character evidence and the extent to which one count was admissible evidence in support of another.

 

Led by Queen's Counsel to defend large-scale money laundering allegations which arose following the defendants inter-related convictions for VAT fraud.  The defence argued the prosecution was an abuse of process analogous to autre fois acquit . Sally drafted the skeleton arguments and submissions. The Defendant was eventually acquitted.

 

R v Bhandal & Others 2006
Instructed as leading junior to prosecute a 10-week trial for allegations of conspiracy to kidnap two businessmen by six defendants. One defendant pleaded guilty and gave evidence for the Crown. All but one of the defendants was convicted. Expert evidence called for the prosecution included telephone cell site analysis, DNA, telephone interrogation, use of veterinary drugs on humans and voice analysis.

R v Cosgrove 2006

Instructed by the SFO as sole counsel to prosecute allegations of fraudulent trading and false accounting. A European Arrest Warrant was issued to secure the Defendant's return from Germany. The case concluded with pleas of guilty.

R v Dakers & Others (2003-2005)
Instructed for the Defendant led by Queen's Counsel. This was a complex multi-handed money laundering. The trial, originally listed for 2003, was subsequently conjoined with a number of other HMCE prosecutions similarly affected by Operation Boyne. Following interlocutory appeals and after eight broken fixture dates the Crown abandoned the trial in June 2005.

Re GOW 2005
Instructed by the SFO as led junior to advise on evidential sufficiency in relation to large-scale claret and penny share frauds. These were complex frauds involving 1000s of losers and had been investigated over a number of years by both the DTI and the SFO. After analysis of a substantial volume of material it was advised that the case should not be proceeded with. This advice was endorsed by the Queen's Counsel and followed by the SFO.