Profile
Carl Harrison was born and brought up in Swansea. After pupillage in London he became a tenant at 17 Carlton Crescent, Southampton, until March 2005, when returned to Wales to join 30 Park Place.
General Crime:
Carl has prosecuted and defended in a wide range of cases including serious assaults, armed robberies, serious sexual offences, drug conspiracies, large scale benefit frauds, deceptions, forgeries and frauds. He has been led on a number of occasions.
Specific areas of practice:
Throughout his career, Regulatory Crime has been a significant part of Carl's practice. Over the last few years his work in this area has included trading standards, trademark offences, company law (including disqualification of directors), health and safety, unlicensed street trading, noise nuisance, unlicensed money lending and offences involving the welfare of animals. He is willing to travel to undertake such work. He has been instructed by many local authorities and large national retail outlets, representing clients across England and Wales.
Carl has been instructed by local authorities to prosecute planning offences including breach of enforcement notices and unauthorised work on listed buildings. He has recently prosecuted a high profile case where the defendant carried out £750,000 of work without consent on a listed manor house.
Carl regularly prosecutes benefit fraud offences for the Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities. In recent times he has been involved in a number of high profile benefit fraud cases which have received significant media interest, for example:
- R v Bacheta & Cole: The defendants claimed various benefits; whilst claiming those benefits they sailed on Cole's yacht to the Canary Islands. Bacheta completed a Scuba course in Mombasa whilst claiming Disability Living Allowance. This case attracted significant national media interest and is shortly to be featured on an ITV programme about benefit fraud.
- R v Paskin: Benefit fraud - Whilst in receipt of Disability Living Allowance the defendant refereed semi-professional football matches.
Carl is also regularly instructed by NHS Counter Fraud and has prosecuted doctors, dentists and nurses. These cases have included prosecuting a surgery manager who forged prescriptions and supplied controlled drugs to his wife, and prosecuting a nurse who obtained sickness payments from a number of NHS Trusts whilst working for a number of different NHS Trusts using five different names.
Carl has experience prosecuting and defending in food hygiene cases. In 2008 he was instructed by the Food Standards Agency in the first appeal in Wales against a refusal to grant a red meat slaughterhouse licence.
Carl has regularly prosecuted and defended in confiscation hearings under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, Drug Trafficking Act 1994 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Carl was recently instructed by the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office in a case involving VAT repayments claimed for the export of fictitious Land Rovers to the United States. This case resulted in a confiscation order of £500,000.
On many occasions Carl has been instructed by local authorities to make Public Interest Immunity Applications.
He has also defended at a number of Courts-Martial in Germany
Carl has a specific interest in prison law, and regularly represents prisoners at Parole and recall hearings all over the country, as well as advising solicitors on preparing for such hearings. He has also advised on Judicial Review in relation to prison cases.
In addition to cirme he has also undertaken a considerable amount of liquor licensing work.
Fields of Work
