Oliver Blunt QC

Year of Call: 1974, Silk 1994

Specialist practice areas: Serious Crime, Criminal/Civil Fraud, Anti-terrorism

Oliver has been repeatedly listed for more than 10 years in the top category of leading silks in crime in both Chambers & Partners and in Legal 500.

According to the most recent Chambers Directory (2010) Oliver Blunt QC is "one of the hardest hitting silks at the Bar.  He is a real street fighter and gives great jury speeches".  Previous editors describe him as "tremendously effective and a real heavyweight in the courtroom" (2009), "frighteningly clever, a magnetic presence in court" (2008), "at ease with any case of whatever complexity or seriousness" (2007), "a leading figure, famed for never missing a trick when it comes to the crunch" (2006), " a wise and silky smooth advocate, he continues to harvest some of the best work at the criminal bar.  Blessed with both suavity and a talent for getting on with all levels of society" (2005).

Oliver’s track record more than justifies the plaudits. Focused on murder, terrorism, fraud and drugs cases, his experience in violent crime in unsurpassed. Examples range from the trials of Michael Sams (kidnapping, blackmail and murder) and John Taft (the “Beauty in the bath” murder) to such high profile cases as the Syd Owen (“Ricky” from Eastenders) wounding trial and R v William Cockram and others, the Millennium Dome robbery. Currently Oliver is instructed in the high profile cases of R v Peter Tobin (murder dating back to 1991 linked to the Vicky Hamilton murder tried in 2006 in Scotland) and R v Iain Davis (double murder re-trial following House of Lords ruling on anonymous witnesses).

Terrorism trials have formed a significant part of Oliver’s practice recently, with his involvement in R v Sharif, arising out of the 21/7 bombings. However, his terrorism experience goes back over several decades and includes IRA trials and appearances on behalf of the Iranian embassy and its consular staff.

Oliver’s experience in fraud and white collar crime includes a number of large and complex cases. These range from a £200 million shipping fraud, a multi-million pound arson/insurance fraud, and money laundering cases, to an electoral fraud trial. Oliver also represented Devi Schahou in the much-publicised Goldman Sachs fraud trial. More recently Oliver was instructed on behalf of the defendant Colwell in relation to the highly publicised Sayers conspiracies to commit large scale mortgage fraud in the North-East.

Oliver’s track record in the area of drugs crime is also extensive and impressive, and includes successfully defending the first defendant in an £150 million pound cocaine importation case. More recently Oliver represented the defendant Goren in a multi-million pound conspiracy to import heroin from Turkey.

His exclusively defence-based practice also includes high profile sexual offences for example, Richard Baker “the DJ rapist” and blackmail, for example recently the case of Amerdeep Johal, a serving police officer accused of blackmailing known sex offenders.

In 2010, of particular note, Oliver is instructed to represent one of the defendants in the notorious Graff robbery.

Oliver regularly appears in the list of highest earning criminal barristers.