Martin Rutherford

Year of Call: 1990

Specialist practice areas: Serious Crime, Criminal Fraud, Child Abuse & Drugs.

Martin is well known as a "heavyweight" leading junior, regularly sought out by solicitors in cases involving murder, drugs and serious sexual offences. He has a particular reputation as a barrister who will fight his corner, even when all others have pleaded guilty. Examples of this include R v Ghaznavi and R v Kneen, where Martin appeared as leading junior in two cases of multi-million pound drug importations.

He is recognised as an intuitive and commanding advocate is particularly in cases involving vulnerable defendants who are incapable of properly speaking for themselves. Examples of such include R v Ruby (a juvenile male who randomly stabbed 3 schoolgirls), R v Lynch (a mother charged with the rape of her own daughter), R v Etherington (a girl charged with the murder of a middle-aged man) and R v Wakeman (a juvenile male rape involving profoundly damaged individuals in care).

The last 10 years have seen Martin develop an expertise in criminal fraud. In this period Martin has been instructed to defend as leading counsel in some of the country's largest money laundering, MTIC fraud and identity theft cases. A particular skill of his is the ability to explain cases of substantial complexity in a manner welcomed by judges and juries alike. Recent cases - in all of which Martin has led- include R v Woods (a 4 month trial involving mobile phone fraud), R v Yong (a travel agency/bureau de change money laundering fraud), R v Smith (a phishing/identity theft involving thousands of compromised identities), R v Kasiba (a fraud on the national lottery), R v Hayble (an advance fee fraud involving the international wine market) and R v Hilditch ( the largest UK prosecution by the Federation Against Copyright Theft).

Inn & Degree:

Lincoln's Inn

Degree: English