Teresa Hay

• Serious crime: Teresa is instructed in the most serious cases including murder, organised violence, and drug related offending. She is often instructed because of her sensitive and straightforward approach and high level of client and witness care.
• Rape and Serious Sexual Offences: Teresa regularly appears in cases involving historical sexual offences of gravity and complexity. She has prosecuted and defended cases involving allegations of sexual offending against multiple defendants involving multiple complainants and wide-ranging enquiries. She has acted in cases involving familial abuse both contemporary and historical, and cases involving allegations of abuse at school. Her experience includes calling and cross-examining witnesses with particular needs and of very young age.
• Fraud: Teresa's fraud practice has included cases involving credit card and identity fraud, haulage fraud, and fraudulent share dealing.
• Consumer law: Teresa has prosecuted for local authorities, the Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority), the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), and on behalf of individual trademark holders. She also appeared as junior prosecution counsel in the combined appeals by various publicans convicted of using so called "illegal Sky" imported from outside the UK. Teresa is part of the team from 5 Paper Buildings who appear at the Trading Standards Institute conference every year.
• Appellate and Admin Courts: Teresa has appeared for both appellants and respondents in the Court of Appeal in relation to conviction and sentence. She has appeared on behalf of the CPS as interested party in Judicial Review cases in the Administrative court on several occasions.
• Inquests: Teresa has represented an interested party during interlocutory hearings. She represented the CPS at an inquest into a death following a violent assault, where the CPS had an interest but was not formally an interested party

Serious crime:

R v Khalid: prosecuting defendant for murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm 16 years after the death of an 18 year-old in a targeted “execution” style killing.

R v M: Representing a 15-year-old acquitted of murder.

R v Moncrieffe: Represented first defendant in conspiracy to supply class A, involving a "cut throat" defence. Served with approximately 15,000 pages of telephone evidence the week before trial, and various other significant pieces of evidence during the trial itself, much of which was successfully excluded.

R v M: defended a 16 year old charged with various conspiracies relating to a fatal gang attack which took place in public view and was all captured on CCTV. Defendant convicted only of violent disorder and acquitted of conspiracies to cause grievous bodily harm and possess weapons.

Rape and Serious Sexual Offences:

R v Ahmed: successful prosecution of a serial sex offender targeting lone women at night.

R v AP: represented elderly defendant accused of sexual offences on his great grand-daughters, having already been convicted of sexually abusing their mother (his granddaughter). Case involved cross examination of young child complainants, and of their mother including a challenge to the previous conviction.

R v Burns: successful defence of former headmaster of an approved school accused of multiple offences of physical and sexual abuse dating from 1960s and 1070s. Case involved complex issues of disclosure and challenges to the prosecution approach to the disclosure exercise, which resulted in material which helped secure acquittals on all charges.

R v Griffin (Operation Yewtree): prosecuted former Radio One DJ and personality accused of a series of historical sexual assaults spread over 35 years. The case, and the wider enquiry, attracted significant media attention and comment.

R v AB: successful defence of vulnerable 17-year-old with serious learning disabilities accused of serious sexual assault on another child with learning disabilities, in circumstances where the offending itself was filmed.

R v X: prosecuted allegations of historical sexual abuse committed by a father who systematically abused his children and step-children over 2 decades. The case was further complicated by the fact that the children were placed with him by Social Services because of previous abuse by their mother.

R v GM: Defended a 40-year-old man charged with historical offences against his niece. The defendant had himself been the victim of abuse within the family, and the complainant had a similar history. The case required a particularly careful and sensitive approach.

Fraud:

R v Al Ahmad: prosecution of a serial impersonator on behalf of the DVSA. The defendant organised and took multiple driving tests all over the country using driving licences supplied by his “customers”.

R v Moorcroft and De Cruz: prosecuted mother and daughter who impersonated the owner of a high value Mayfair property to secure a mortgage the funds for which were transferred abroad.

R v Grant: defending haulier charged with conspiracy to commit systematic fraud against local authority run transport company. The case also involved an appearance before the Traffic Commissioner.

R v Harris and others: defending a transgender client in a share dealing conspiracy involving acts committed in the UK and abroad.

Consumer law:

R v Fox  (and others): Prosecuted the first CPUTS prosecution relating to an illegal pyramid promotional scheme. The scheme attracted national media attention and involved thousands of participants in the UK, and some abroad, before collapsing causing loses in excess of £20m. The case involved issues of UK interpretation of European law, compatibility of UK and European law, and applying newly defined legal concepts.

TM Eye v various: instructed in private prosecutions on behalf of luxury goods companies seeking to uphold their trademarks. These cases involve advising on, preparing, and seeking anonymity and special measures applications on behalf of undercover operatives used by a private company as opposed to a law enforcement agency.

Advising Hertfordshire County Council - Teresa advised on the viability of prosecuting a house-builder after complaints were received from consumers who had bought properties on an estate marketed with no social housing, only for the house-builder to sell a significant proportion of the properties to a housing association when private buyers were not forthcoming. The issue attracted national media attention at the time and featured on BBC's "Watchdog". The advice involved not only analysis of the relevant legal principles, but the balancing of competing policy considerations at a local and national level.

In 2020 Teresa received a number of Judicial appointments including: Deputy District Judge (Civil), Judge of the First Tier Tribunal (SEND) and Employment Judge.

Teresa sits as a Road User Charging Adjudicator in the central London tribunal.

She is an approved facilitator for the Vulnerable Witness Advocacy training, and an advanced advocacy trainer on the South Eastern Circuit Course at Keble College Oxford.

She was elected as a Bencher of Middle Temple in Feb 2020.