Date of Call: 2003
Charlene has a wide range of experience in defending and prosecuting all aspects of criminal cases, ranging from attempted murder to complex fraud, both on her own and as a led junior. She has particular expertise in Trade Marks, Copyright, Trading Standards and Consumer Law offences and is regularly instructed by companies, local authorities and defendants in all aspects of this type of work.
Charlene is on the CPS list of grade 2 prosecutors, and is also directly instructed by the British Transport Police Economic Crimes Unit.
She also appears before the Parole Board Hearings and at Prison Adjudications.
Recent Experience: Defence
Charlene has been instructed as sole advocate in numerous cases of serious violence, kidnapping, blackmail, firearms, serious fraud, robbery, importation and also supply of all classes of drugs (both commercial and as a result of TPO operations).
Charlene has recently been led in a case of historic childhood sexual abuse, involving eight separate complainants and over 20 counts ranging from rape to inciting gross indecency with a child (R v Lambert).
She has also just completed cases as junior counsel for the first defendant in a multi-handed, multi-count conspiracy to defraud the motor insurance industry (R v Wajid Hussain and others), and also for the first defendant in an armed hijacking of a lorry carrying high value electrical goods (R v Thorpe and others).
Recent Experience: Prosecution
Charlene accepts CPS instructions and has prosecuted a wide variety of offences.
She has recently been led in a multi-handed counterfeit goods case which led to significant sentences of imprisonment and confiscation orders of over a three quarters of a million pounds being made against the defendants (R v Spriggs, Rose and TS8 Ltd).
Charlene has prosecuted for a wide number of local authorities in all areas of Trademarks, Copyright, Environmental and Consumer offences. She has particular expertise in all areas involving the entertainment industry.
Seminars
Charlene has given a number of seminars and lectures on the Criminal Justice Act and also the new Fraud Act. She has also lectured alongside Archie Mackay on Youths in the Criminal Justice system.
Charlene has provided training days for local authorities and has given seminars for the last 3 years at the annual Trading Standards Conference.