Mark Ruffell was instructed to represent a well-established domiciliary care provider who faced having their registration being cancelled by the CQC. The background is a familiar tale of a service provider who had previously been rated as ‘Good’, finding that in a routine inspection in 2016 it ‘Required Improvement.’ In early 2017 it was inspected […]
Westminster City Council v The Zoological Society of London [ZSL] On 22nd October 2018 ZSL was fined a total of £40,000 with costs of £8000 for failing to ensure the safety of an employee, and linked, failing to have in place adequate a risk assessment. On 16th July 2016 a keeper using a step ladder […]
Peter Asteris and Tim Akers secured the acquittal of a client of all offences charged in the longest-running trial that has taken place at Southampton Crown Court. Over the course of five months, eleven defendants were on trial for charges of conspiracy to defraud and fraud in a Trading Standards prosecution that arose out of […]
Mark Ruffell has successfully mitigated on behalf of a solicitor who admitted contacting her imprisoned client by mobile phone; sending him 102 text messages in less than three months. In mitigation before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Mr Ruffell said that at the time his client set up her own practice, she did not appreciate “the […]
Pump Court Chambers is delighted to announce the arrival of John Dyer as part of our Criminal and Regulatory Team expansion. An expert in all areas of criminal law, recent cases include murder, serious violence, kidnap, serious sexual offences (including rape, historic cases, offences involving children, youths and those with learning difficulties, indecent images), false […]
Mark Ruffell, Head of Pump Court Chambers Regulatory and Disciplinary Team has recently presented a seminar on Fire Safety Regulation following the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The seminar is designed to assist Local Authorities and landlords with the various powers to maintain fire safety and highlights the consequences if the regulations are not maintained.
James Newton-Price has successfully prosecuted a former Bedfordshire policeman who ‘trawled’ Facebook to find vulnerable teenage girls for sex. Mohammad Arshad 35, of Luton, groomed underage girls online and pestered them for sex, sometimes paying them, St Albans Crown Court heard. He began abusing girls in 2012 when he was a CCTV operator in Luton […]
It is important to realise that those sitting in regulatory proceedings may have a wide and varied perception of the meaning of Dishonesty. That itself is not surprising. Those of us who cut our teeth in the wide environs of criminal law have come to realise that dishonesty as a concept lies on a spectrum. […]
There have been two recent important cases, Squier and Enemuwe, on the vexed question of the use that professional disciplinary panels are entitled to make of Court of Appeal judgments in related criminal cases. Squier must now be regarded as the leading authority on the issue. The Queen (on the application of Squier) v General […]
Government faces fierce opposition from BMA over plans to enforce 7 day working The Government’s manifesto pledge to require GPs to provide 7 day a week access and to increase the number of consultants working at weekends has sparked a furious reaction from the medical profession. The BMA’s Dr Mark Porter castigated the scheme, saying […]
The laws of Rugby are notoriously incomprehensible to most spectators, many players and some referees. But if you thought the rules about behaviour in the scrum were murky, spare a thought for the galaxy of rugby loving legal luminaries who administer an equally complex set of disciplinary rules. The game at international level is run […]
Not the latest cupcake, popcake, cronut or yumdough! But the case of Gareth Lee v Ashers Baking Co Ltd & Colin McArthur Ltd & Karen McArthur Ltd heard in the High Court of Belfast last month. This case has received a good deal of media attention. The judgment was handed down in the same week […]