JOSEPH HART

Call 2000     Inner Temple

Crime


Business crime and regulatory



MA (Oxon)

hart@deanscourt.co.uk

  ‘Robust, hard-working, thorough’, ‘shows great promise’
- Legal 500, 2007

 ‘Shows great promise’
– Legal 500, 2008
  '[Joseph Hart's] defence practice is highly rated'
- Legal 500, 2009 
  'highly rated in his predominantly defence practice'
- Legal 500, 2010

Areas of Practice

 

Joseph Hart both prosecutes and defends, but his practice is predominantly defence work.

Since joining chambers in 2000, Joseph Hart has been practising in all areas of crime, regulatory crime and associated regulatory areas.  He regularly acts for Defendants in Health and Safety prosecutions in incidents involving death, and this recently includes the prosecution of individuals and companies for breaches of regulations including fire safety.  His practice includes all areas of fraud and financial crime, particularly money laundering; EBay fraud; frauds involving the infringement of copyright legislation and conspiracy to commit fraud. His clients have included professional people. Joseph Hart also specialises in people trafficking offences; having acted as junior, led junior, and more recently leading junior in a number of complex multi-handed people trafficking cases. He regularly acts in cases involving firearms; all degrees of sexual offences and offences of violence up to and including murder.

Joseph Hart maintains a keen interest in complex road traffic cases and has acted in a number of cases involving high profile individuals.

Whilst his practice is mainly defence, Joseph Hart has regularly prosecuted for the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Manchester City Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, United Utilities, Lancashire Fire and Rescue.

Joseph has acted as locum Crown Counsel to the Government of St Helena, in the South Atlantic. During his time on the island he prosecuted a number of serious sex cases involving very young victims

Joseph Hart regularly lectures in chambers; to solicitors’ firms; to prosecuting authorities, and to specific interest groups. He also teaches on the Bar Vocational Course in Manchester, and is involved in advocacy training through his Inn (Inner). He has acted as a legal advisor to television series, and has appeared on current affairs programmes in his professional capacity.

Joseph Hart has knowledge of both French and Italian legal systems and speaks Italian and French fluently; and speaks some German.

Professional Association

Criminal Bar association
Young Fraud Lawyers in the North

Significant Recent cases

Regina -v- Gareth Curtis
Led junior for defence in Manchester gangland shooting

Regina -v- Pamela Tickle
Led junior in large scale NHS fraud in chain of optician shops, involving sums in excess of £1 million

DEFRA  -V- Smith and Smith  
Case involving the failure to correctly “tag” and identify cattle. First case of its type to result in a custodial sentence.  Counsel for the Prosecution.

Regina  -V- McGrath and Others                                
A case involving multi-count, multi victim historic rape Counsel for the Defence.     

Regina -V- O’Neil 
Case involving allegations of indecent assault by a former monk.  Counsel for the Defence.

HSE -V- Priory Hospitals 
Case involving a fall from an insecure window in a secure unit for the mentally disordered.   Counsel for the Defence.

Regina -V- Nolan              
Case involving serious attacks on elderly victims; Defendant fulfilling the criteria for a mandatory life sentence. Counsel for the Defence.

Salford City Council -V- Display Marketing Group 
Case involving allegations of dangerous products being put up for sale.  Counsel for the Defence.

Manchester City Council -V- Bangi 
Case involving allegations of unfit premises for food preparation. Counsel for the Prosecution. 

Cornwall County Council –V- Manton 
Case involving misleading representation by a national care finance company. Counsel for the Defence

Regina –V- Imre Orsos
Case alleging the illegal trafficking into the UK of women to work as prostitutes and the rape of those women. Leading Junior for the Defence

Regina –v- Ladislav Kaco
Case involving a conspiracy to traffic sex workers into the UK. Led Junior for the Defence.

Regina–v- Nicholas Danby
Case of breaches of fire safety regulations which led to the death of a hotel resident. Counsel for the Prosecution.

Regina –v- Excavation and Contracting Ltd
Fatal accident on a large publicly funded building project. Counsel for the Defence.

Regina –v- Michael Cheetham
Murder involving complex issues of causation. Led Junior for the Defence.

Regina –v- Mohammed Atif
Case involving allegations of gang rape of an under-aged girl. Counsel for the Defence.

Regina –v- Norman Williams
Case involving a factory scale production of counterfeit designer pottery. Counsel for the Prosecution.

For reasons of confidentiality details of ongoing cases cannot be given.