Lydia Jonson has considerable experience in defending and prosecuting in all areas of criminal work in both Crown and Appellate courts. Since June 2010 she has worked for
Fulcrum Chambers LLP.
She is instructed by a wide variety of prosecuting agencies, including the Crown Prosecution Service Fraud Unit (Grade 3) and the Serious Fraud Office where she is a nominated counsel (List B). She is also nominated to prosecute cases for HM Attorney General (List C) and is currently instructed by HM Attorney-General for Jersey to lead an investigation into allegations of multi-million pound investor fraud.
She has particular experience in the following areas: serious fraud, corruption, asset forfeiture, drug importations, money laundering and identity fraud. She is also experienced in questioning young and vulnerable witnesses, having conducted a number of sexual assault cases.
She was seconded to Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office in 2000 and 2005. In 2000 she worked for three months within the Condemnation Unit and is therefore very familiar with the law and evidence relating to such proceedings. In 2005 she worked within the Asset Forfeiture Unit, dealing with all aspects of forfeiture from restraint and receiverships to confiscation. She has particular skill at drafting restraint orders and is regularly instructed in this respect.
Her work for the SFO over the last three years in the BAE Systems plc investigation has equipped her with exceptional and unrivalled experience of every aspect of the conduct of a major criminal investigation. She was instructed as second junior counsel to David Williams, who has since taken silk. There are few members of the Bar who have been given investigative powers by a prosecuting body and who have experience of using them so extensively. She has participated in the execution of search warrants, interviewed suspects under PACE, conducted compulsory interviews under CJA 1987 and taken part in lengthy and complex investigations together with SFO staff and Ministry of Defence Police in South Africa, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Her legal advice and work on the investigation has made her expert in the drafting and processing of international letters of request. She also has considerable experience of active liaison with foreign judicial authorities, and of having followed mutual legal assistance requests through to their conclusion by actually taking the evidence of witnesses in proceedings before the judicial authorities of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Exceptionally, she has also represented the SFO before a meeting of Eurojust in the Hague.
Publications and Lectures
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Chosen to act as defence counsel in the filming of a mock trial which formed the basis of a
Ministry of Justice research report into the effect of ethnicity on jury deliberations.
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She has also provided legal advice for the BBC drama: “Judge John Deed”.
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She sits as a City Law School assessor on the CPS Crown Advocate Training Course.
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Lydia is also a tutor on the PWC Certificate In Fraud Management Course run by the University of Teeside.
Cases of Note
Re BAE Systems plc (pre charge; Serious Fraud Office): an ongoing high-profile corruption investigation encompassing allegations of bribery in relation to arms procurement . Instructed as junior counsel on behalf of the SFO.
R v Anthony Prudhoe and others (2007, Leeds Crown Court): a multi-million pound invoice discounting fraud prosecution brought by the Serious Fraud Office against four defendants. Anthony Prudhoe and Michael Bird both pleaded guilty (Prudhoe having abandoned a contested abuse of process application that his deportation from Jordan to the UK was unlawful), Mark Grainger and Linda Straughan were convicted after a trial. Lydia was instructed by the SFO as junior counsel, and dealt with confiscation proceedings as sole counsel.
R v Eugene O’Riordan (2006, Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court). Lydia was instructed by HM Revenue and Customs as junior counsel to prosecute this defendant for failing to account for Corporation Tax within his construction companies.
