Richard Hearnden

Year of Call: 1998

Specialist practice areas: Serious Crime, Criminal/Civil Fraud, Serious Sexual Offences, Regulation/Compliance, Health & Safety, Police Disciplinary, Courts Martial, Inquests & Public Inquiries

Practice Profile
Richard Hearnden is a criminal barrister who has appeared for both the Crown and on behalf of the accused in five recently reported cases, four of which are cited in the 2009 edition of Archbold.

Richard is a Grade 3 prosecutor for CPS London (Grade 4 being the highest) and is on the CPS London Rape Specialist List.

Richard is a member of HM Attorney-General's B List of prosecuting counsel. He is regularly instructed by the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO).

Richard prosecutes cases for three London Boroughs both in the Crown Court and in magistrates' courts.

Fraud and Organised Crime

Operation Clumber II: instructed in the successful prosecution of a gang involved a large-scale tobacco smuggling conspiracy.

Operation Homemade and Operation Sandlewood: instructed by RCPO to prosecute a gang which smuggled over £1 million worth of heroin into the UK, in which 5 out of 6 defendants were convicted in two trials.

Operation Mistlethrush: junior Crown counsel in an identity theft and bank fraud in which over £600,000 was stolen from individual bank accounts and laundered. The resulting confiscation order was for just over £1 million.

Currently instructed in three substantial cases of organised crime by RCPO and the CPS.

Richard has prosecuted other drug smuggling and excise offences for RCPO. He has also prosecuted multi-handed conspiracies and substantive fraud offences for the CPS.

Local Government

Richard has directed two local authorities in implementing a Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation strategy in cases of Housing Benefit fraud and offences under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. He has prosecuted regulatory offences concerning noise abatement, environmental health, trading standards and housing.

International Crime

Richard spent four months in 2007 seconded to the office of HM Attorney-General of the Cayman Islands. There he handled incoming letters of request from prosecuting authorities and judicial investigators from all over the world, concerned with the discovery of evidence connected to major fraud.
Richard has been instructed in numerous cases where foreign enquiries have been undertaken, and has drafted letters of request on behalf of the CPS. He has also been instructed in respect of legal argument concerning the allegedly unlawful extradition of an offender to the UK.

Other Work

Richard has prosecuted serious sexual offences, including rape, and continues to do so. He has appeared for both sides in other serious sexual and violent offences, drugs' offences and public disorder matters. He has represented parties at coroner's inquests, and defends in road traffic offences in magistrates' courts.

Appellate Work and Judicial Review

Richard has been instructed by the CPS in two judicial reviews, one of which became a much-cited authority on custody time limits. He has also represented the accused in the judicial review of a youth court.

Memberships and Affiliations
Criminal Bar Association
South Eastern Circuit
JUSTICE

Richard is also a qualified advocacy trainer to the students and pupils of Gray's Inn.