Year of Call: 1984

Kennedy Talbot’s principal practice areas are civil recovery and criminal confiscation, money laundering, government and police investigations and powers, medicines, legal professional privilege, and civil fraud and tracing.

He is a joint author of Confiscation and the Proceeds of Crime (Sweet and Maxwell 3rd Ed. looseleaf), Administrative Court: Practice and Procedure (Sweet and Maxwell, 2006) and a contributing editor of the White Book.

Kennedy is ranked as a star individual by Chambers & Partners (2011) in POCA & Asset Forfeiture. They say:

“He is acclaimed by sources as one of the best lawyers in the world for asset forfeiture and civil recovery work.”

“He really has no equal in terms of his breadth of knowledge and experience in the area”

“He’s not a silk, but frankly he could be. He’s an exceptional lawyer who gets the right result. He’s absolutely first-class.”

He has appeared on behalf of government departments and agencies, companies and individuals in hundreds of cases at all levels including the House of Lords, Privy Council, Court of Appeal, High Court and in foreign jurisdictions. Included in these appearances are 6 cases heard in the House of Lords since 2000.

His proceeds of crime practise includes acting for the Serious and Organised Crime Agency,  receivers and respondents in civil recovery proceedings under Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act. He has appeared in many of the important cases in this developing jurisdiction and regularly advises companies on civil settlements, particularly in corruption cases. He has appeared in leading cases on disclosure and “consents to act”. He regularly advises financial institutions on making protected and authorised disclosures to SOCA to comply with anti-money laundering legislation. His proceeds of crime practise embraces all aspects of restraint, receivership and confiscation in the High Court and Crown Court.

He regularly acts in investigative cases relating to search and seizure, production and other intrusive and sensitive investigations. Examples include the Mercury Tax case and Operation Rize (where he advised the police on the use of money laundering warrants to search safety deposit boxes). He is currently advising the Metropolitan Police in the News of the World phone hacking inquiry.

In the last 3 years he has been instructed by the Department of Health in several international criminal medicines prosecutions and civil enforcement proceedings for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

He is also instructed as independent counsel in high profile legal professional privilege disputes. For example he was instructed in the Cash for Honours inquiry, the David Mills/Silvio Berlusconi investigation, and the investigation into former Law Society President, Robert Sayer.

Notable Cases

2010/2011 Court appearance (examples)

• R (on the application of El-Kurd) v Winchester Crown Court [2011] EWHC 1853 Admin Judicial review. Power of Crown Court to order retention of material seized pursuant to unlawful search warrant
• Department of Health v Mirza [2011] EWCA 1206 Admin High Court trial on ownership of property to pay order
• SOCA v Wunderley (2011) (CO/11959/2010) Judicial review. Power of search and arrest
• Re Yilmaz (2011) DTA no 106 of 2002 High Court. Stay of intervention in enforcement proceedings as abuse of process
• CPS v Campbell [2010] 1 WLR 650 Court of Appeal. Stay of proceedings where defendant cannot obtain representation
• Olden v SOCA [2010] Lloyds Rep FC 432 Court of Appeal. Civil recovery where there were previous criminal proceedings
• Capper v Cheney [2010] Lloyds FC 593 Chancery Division. Stay of declaration proceedings regarding cash seized by police as abuse of process
• R (on the application of Cummins) v Manchester Crown Court [2010] Lloyds Rep FC 551 Judicial review. Quashing search warrants
• R (on the application of the CPS) ex parte Cambridge Crown Court [2010] EWHC 663 Admin Judicial review. Appeared as amicus curiae. Confiscation order when defendant absconds
• Baguley v Blackwood and Fleetwood magistrates’ court [2010] EWHC 3652 Admin Judicial review. Enforcement of confiscation order after delay. ECHR art 6(1).
• CPS v G [2010] EWHC 1617 (Admin) High Court. Maintenance of restraint order over company assets
• Re Stapleton [2010] EWHC 3025 Admin High Court. Proper approach to certificate of inadequacy
• Flaherty v City of Westminster Magistrates’ court [2008] EWHC 2589 Admin Judicial review of decision enforcing confiscation order

2010/2011 caseload also includes:-

• Advising the Metropolitan Police Service on phone hacking inquiry
• SOCA v N and T. Representing respondents in High Court civil recovery proceedings
• Operation Crawl Representing the claimant in High Court civil recovery proceedings connected to criminal trials
• SOCA v P and P Representing respondents in High Court recovery proceedings
• R v Parsons Represented the Department of Health in medicines trial
• R v Jaffrey Represented defendant in £54m money laundering trial
• R v Glykys Represented the DOH in medicines trial
• Omega v Sharma and CPS Representing the CPS in combined Chancery / Administrative Court property litigation
• R v R and CPS Representing the CPS in Family Division / Administrative Court litigation
• Advising Telecommunications Plc in money laundering disclosure
• Advising in Law Society intervention cases involving proceeds of crime
• Advising the SFO in Madoff criminal proceeds investigation
• Acting as independent LPP counsel in search of lawyers’ offices
• Advising and representing the Marine Management Organisation on recovery of illicit proceeds in numerous illegal commercial fishing cases
• Consultant to Council of Europe on Serbian proceeds of crime law
• Operation Lauren. Advising the DOH/MHRA on medicines and money laundering prosecution

Previous years’ reported and notable cases

• RCPO v May [2009] STC 2426 High Court enforcement of order against corporate / trust assets
• Irwin Mitchell v RCPO [2009] 1 WLR 1079 Court of Appeal. Release of funds to pay solicitors
• Power-Hynes v Norwich magistrates’ court [2009] Lloyds Rep FC 619 Judicial Review. Unlawful search warrant
• R (on the application of Mercury Tax Group) v HMRC [2009] STC 743 Unlawful search warrant
• Sayer (2009) £100m excise duty fraud
• Hockey [2008] 1 Cr App R (S) 50 Court of Appeal prosecution confiscation appeal
• SFO v Balfour Beatty (2008) First High Court civil recovery by SFO
• Craven and Pepper (2005-2008) High Court civil recovery settlements for SOCA
• Allan (2008) High Court civil recovery trial for SOCA
• US Govt v Saccoccia (2008) Enforcement of $134m US court judgment in High Court
• Operation Rize (2008) Advice to police on search warrants over safety deposit box centres
• Adams and others (2007) Money laundering prosecution. Notorious gangland figure
• Richards [2006] 2 FLR 1220 Court of Appeal. Guidance on distribution of proceeds of crime in ancillary relief
• Capewell and HMCE [2006] CP Rep 5 Court of Appeal. Payment of receiver’s costs
• X v X [2005] FLR 487 High Court. Distribution of family assets where criminal proceeds
• Lunnon [2005] 1 Cr App R(S) 24 Court of Appeal. Effect of plea acceptance on confiscation
• Ascroft [2004] 1 Cr App R(S) 326 Court of Appeal. Calculating a confiscation case
• US Government v Montgomery (no 2) [2004] 1 WLR 2241 House of Lords civil appeal. Compatibility of judgment enforcement with the ECHR
• Rezvi and Benjafield [2003] 1 AC 1099 House of Lords criminal Appeal. Compatibility of confiscation laws with ECHR
• Hughes and others [2003] 1 WLR 177 Court of Appeal. Receiver’s costs
• P v P [2003] 3 WLR 1350 Court of Appeal. Money laundering disclosures
• Pope [2002] 1 WLR 1966 House of Lords criminal appeal. Construction of committal powers to Crown Court
• Cadman Smith [2002] 1 WLR 54 House of Lords criminal appeal. Leading case on benefit in confiscation cases
• Norris [2001] 1 WLR 1388  House of Lords civil appeal. Rights of a third party spouse in confiscation case