Barristers

James Wing

Call 2003

James Wing is a criminal law specialist, undertaking both defence and prosecution work (Level 3), acting alone and as leading counsel.

He has experience in a wide variety of areas of the criminal law, including serious violence, sexual offences, high-value thefts and robberies, fraud and drugs.

James also has particular experience in confiscation and asset forfeiture, prosecuting or defending cases involving millions of pounds, as well as in benefit fraud cases, and road traffic and railway offences, in which he is regularly instructed on a privately funded basis.

Expertise

James regularly defends and prosecutes major confiscation hearings with a value of up to £10m.

Featured Confiscation and Asset Recovery cases


RL [2021]

The prosecution was forced to abandon this multimillion-pound confiscation against four defendants who had been convicted of running several brothels across London with a drug supply business on the side.


NS [2019]

With a benefit of more than £9m. S and his co-accused had acted as the bankers and money launderers for organised crime groups across the Midlands. This case involved complex issues of apportionment between co-conspirators (some had joined the group later than others).


Nwangoro [2006] EWCA Crim 3061

Acted as junior counsel for the respondent in an appeal relating to a confiscation order of £240,000. It required detailed arguments on the nine grounds of appeal, including breach of legitimate expectation, the calculation of benefit and realisable assets, the interpretation of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, the court’s jurisdiction, and the approach to be taken when the correct procedure in the Crown Court had not been followed.

Featured Fraud and Money Laundering cases


RL [2019]

Acted as led junior for a client accused of running a string of brothels across London, supplying cocaine and Viagra to customers, and laundering the proceeds through UK and foreign businesses.


NS [2019]

Defended a man said to have been one of the principal bankers for organised crime groups throughout the Midlands. The conspirators laundered the proceeds of drugs dealing, extortion rackets and other organised criminal activity.


Ursachi [2011]

Instructed to prosecute a man who acted as the hub of an international distribution network of 50,000 cloned credit cards, in a conspiracy worth potentially millions of pounds.


DJ [2011]

Defence junior for the trial of a man accused of defrauding his employers of £250,000 by creating extremely sophisticated financial instruments. He would resell machinery and make non-existent financial settlements with third parties, then create an intricate trail of forged documents to cover his tracks.

James has defended health and safety cases, including a trial which followed the major collapse of scaffolding on a corporate site.

Featured Health and Safety cases


JH [2021]

Leading counsel for the defendant, who was accused with two others of attempted murder. This was a gang revenge attack in which the defendants caused the victim catastrophic injuries while trying to chop his head off.


AG [2021]

Manslaughter in which the defendant’s attack on the deceased was all captured on high-quality CCTV, leaving causation of death as the only trial issue based on the expert evidence of four pathologists. The prosecution case collapsed when one of their experts admitted there might have been an alternative cause of death.


AA [2021]

Led in a gangland conspiracy to murder in which the main victim was shot in the face with a shotgun and his friend shot with a second firearm. Both of them and a third victim were repeatedly stabbed with knives and machetes.


AS [2017-2019]

Attempted murder trial in which the defendants stabbed the victim for no good reason, severing an artery in his back and disembowelled him.


OW [2015], JD [2018] and MK [2018]

He was a led junior in these murder trials.


Riley [2008] EWCA Crim 3231

In the Court of Appeal, responding to an appeal against sentence made by a QC in relation to a man who stabbed someone to death in an argument over drugs.

Featured Courts Martial cases


T and L

Court martial in Germany in which two men were accused of outraging public decency and assault respectively, which led to a full-blown riot. L’s case was thrown out at the end of the prosecution case but T was convicted, wholly against the weight of the evidence. The Courts Martial Appeals Court granted the appeal against conviction ([2010] EWCA Crim 1338).

James has acted for a number of clients in EncroChat organised crime cases, each accused of being involved in the supply of multiple kilos of Class A drugs. BW [2022] also involves allegations of conspiracy to supply firearms.

Featured Organised Crime cases


Class A drugs. BW [2022]

Also involves allegations of conspiracy to supply firearms.


RH [2021]

Defended a man accused of supplying 32kg of cocaine while making arrangements to supply a further 50kg.


H

Instructed to defend a man allegedly involved in a conspiracy to supply 198kg of cocaine, which had a street value of £50,000,000.


Hoskins

Prosecuted a man who was found in possession of three firearms, two of which were loaded, and possession of £15,000 worth of heroin and crack with intent to supply. The defendant was represented at trial by a QC.


Chambers and others

Acted alone in the Court of Appeal for a man convicted of conspiring to supply the largest amount of amphetamine (500kg) and counterfeit Ecstasy tablets (400,000) ever seized in the UK. He later represented the same defendant in his confiscation proceedings – the hearing took several days and involved millions of pounds – and two cases in the Court of Appeal: [2009] EWCA Crim 2742 and [2011] EWCA Crim 2989.

Featured Road Traffic and Motoring Offences cases


JM [2021]

Death by dangerous driving case, allegedly committed by the defendant while high on cocaine. He was accused of driving at double the speed limit through a red light in a stolen car when disqualified from driving, and on bail for a previous offence of driving while disqualified.


SM [2021]

Causing serious injury by dangerous driving case. The defendant ran her boyfriend over after an argument.


He has also defended many private driving cases, dealing with trials, sentences and disqualification, special reasons and exceptional hardship hearings.


In addition, he has prosecuted and defended railway frauds.

Featured Sexual Offences cases


KM [2022]

Defended a man accused of violently raping a 10-year-old boy and abusing three others over a 20-year period, recording underage girls having sex, taking pictures of indecent images and distributing them on the dark web.


Nwokoye [2019]

Acted for the defence in an attempted stranger rape case. The sentence on this case was appealed after leave granted: [2019] CA, unreported.


PB [2019]. AA [2018]

Defended in ‘date rape’ trials.


O [2018] Defended.

Defendant was accused of raping his three-year-old daughter. Caught red-handed by his wife; the child had internal injuries.


Ryan [2016]

Defended a man accused of serially raping his daughter for years when she was between the ages of seven and 15, while physically abusing her, her siblings and mother. He had a child with a 15-year-old girl around the same time, and was said to have sexually attacked a school friend of the complainant. In an earlier trial, with different representation, he had been convicted of abusing a stepdaughter in a similar way within months of leaving his original family. Sentenced, on this case alone, to a sentence equivalent to 21 years’ imprisonment.


TM [2012]

Defended a woman accused of historical sex offences: forcing two of her brothers to have sex with her when she was 15 and they were seven and nine, and assisting her older brother to rape another younger sister; this older brother also raped the defendant whilst several of the children engaged in other incestuous activities. The father had attempted to rape the defendant and encouraged some of his friends to molest two of his younger daughters. By the time of the trial, one of the younger sisters had accused the defendant’s partner of rape as well.

Featured Violence cases


GM [2022]

Defence case about the prolonged torture of a man who stole drugs from his dealers.


JM [2021]

Defended a man accused of an unprovoked hammer attack on an elderly man, causing grievous bodily harm with intent. James had previously represented the same client on three separate cases: GBH with intent, armed robbery and kidnap.


SF

Acted for a defendant accused of a violent gunpoint robbery which led to the alleged victim suffering two broken legs. The case against the defendant was thrown out following a full day’s legal argument at the start of the trial.


Shepherd

Prosecuted a sophisticated armed robbery of a supermarket, and two attempts to pervert the course of justice. The defendant went into a Co-op branch before it opened in the morning and forced the staff at gunpoint to open the safes and disable the CCTV systems. He then made his victims get into the meat chiller room, dragging one by her hair when she refused, and locked the door. The police were arriving as he left but they fled when he threatened to shoot them.

James has appeared in several inquests in which someone has died in a road traffic accident.

Recent articles

Prosecution offer no evidence four weeks into trial of James Wing and Samantha Ball’s client in financial regulation case

James Wing led Samantha Ball in representing a Defendant for trial in respect of an allegation of contravening the general prohibition on carrying out a regulated activity contrary to section 23(1) of the Financial Services…

James Wing

Samantha Ball

Chambers to the fore in Old Bailey acquittals

Members of 3TG represented three of four defendants acquitted of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life following an eight-week trial at the Central Criminal Court, which concluded this…

Peter Rouch KC

Adam Davis KC

John Femi-Ola KC

Simon Shannon

James Wing

View all

Regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB)

Regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and holds a current practising certificate. If you are not satisfied with the service provided, please click here.

  • BA (First Class) St John’s College, Oxford
  • CPE – City University
  • Bar School – Inns of Court School of Law

  • Lincoln’s Inn
  • Criminal Bar Association
section image

Would you like to know more?

For help and advice talk to a member of our clerking team. They can advise on the best options for your matter.

Call: +44 (0) 20 7353 3102

Portfolio Builder

Select the practice areas that you would like to download or add to the portfolio

Download    Add to portfolio   
Portfolio
Title Type CV Email

Remove All

Download


Click here to share this shortlist.
(It will expire after 30 days.)