Brian Hurst has a specialist background in commercial and criminal fraud, particularly banking and insurance fraud, revenue fraud and general fraudulent trading. With a background in civil and commercial law, Brian has rare expertise in specialist and technical subjects, particularly financial services and products, insurance and pensions.

Since 2000 his practice has broadened to accommodate the Prosecution and Defence of wider ranges of serious crime, frequently involving complex expert issues.

Crime involving companies, partnerships and commercial transactions.
Crime in and arising from the financial services industry and financial products.
Crime involving Revenue fraud, taxation, Customs & Excise.
Insurance, particularly life assurance and products.
Commercial and company law involving the conduct and regulation of companies, business finance, accountancy and taxation and the use and misuse of commercial contracts. Insurance, agency and related legal issues.
Regulatory law of solicitors, accountants and brokers.
Crime involving professionals, in particular solicitors’ fraud and negligence.
Financial services regulation.
Technical and scientific matters arising from time to time in criminal cases; analysis of engineering and scientific reports, eg death by careless or dangerous driving cases, rape, causation in cases of serious injury and death, general forensic science.

Melton and Others
£70m fraud upon Prudential Insurance Co arising from the intervention of the FSA in pension misselling.  Abuse of directors’ fiduciary obligations.  Listed for 12 months.   Collapsed following disclosure failures by CPS.

R v. Jones and Garvey
Leading Junior in national pyramid selling fraud involving 10,000 losers and an estimated £12m profit. The trial was recorded as the longest in West Yorkshire, lasting five months. The trial lasted five months.

R v. Letizia
Leading Junior in complex fraudulent trading, insolvency and insurance fraud in which the main issues were the manipulation of accounts, consequences of winding-up and asset transfers and ownership.Obtaining insurance policies by deception. Trial lasted four and a half months.

oncasster Council frauds
Instructed to represent local mayor involved in corruption allegations.

R v. Mazza and Hinkley
Prosecuting Counsel in large scale “advance fee” fraud involving “contractual consent” defences. Trial lasted three weeks.

Bark and Howley and Others
Money laundering of the profits of large scale illicit diesel transactions to fund paramilitary activities in Northern Ireland.   Trial lasted four months.

Defence Counsel in various Customs & Excise and Inland Revenue
Frauds including “lump labour” frauds in the building industry, tobacco manufacture and importation, diesel washing, smuggling, parallel import frauds, sham duty relief frauds.

Multiple large scale negligence and fraud
Actions against solicitors arising from the mortgage boom of the late 1980s. Civil trials continuing over twelve months.

R v. Carass and Williamson
Successful leading Junior defending one of the current leading caes on reverse burdens of proof.  DTI prosecution concerning unlawful company trading in the building industry, insolvency and the wrongful manipulation of company profits and assets to avoid the consequences of insolvency.   This prosecution ultimately failed because of insufficient familiarity and knowledge of the law of commercial transactions concerning “novation agreements” enabling a technical submission to succeed at half time. Trial lasted three weeks.

1986: Broadwater Farm trials arising from Tottenham riots in October 1985, including Donaldson originally arrested for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock.   Various trials ongoing over 8 months.
1986: Baker   -  Armed robbery, Streatham (x2).  Central Criminal Court.
1987:   Operation Condor  -  Brixton drugs conspiracy. The largest drugs surveillance and police military armed operation in the UK involving 2,000 police officers, a camouflaged train and the isolation of a section of Brixton for 12 hours during the raid. Listed for 8 months.
1987:   Hamilton  -  Rape.  Central Criminal Court.
1988:   O’Neill   -   Wages robbery on Securicor van. Kingston Crown Court.
1988:   Wigley   -  Attempting to pervert the course of justice using firearms. St Albans Crown Court.
1993:  McLean -  Judicial review of discretionary life sentences following Tynne, Wilson and Gunnell.
1996:   Cowan, Gayle and Ricciardi  -  First case to go before Lord Chief Justice on rights of silence following Criminal justice and Public Order Act 1994.
1998:   Re E - Organized crime syndicate.  Fraud. Smuggling. Drugs. Protection.
2000:   Robinson  -  Customs & Excise duty avoidance on large scale tobacco smuggling.   Imported from Tenerife disguised as fertilizer. 35 shipments, £5m.

Saghir Ahmed BT prosecution of organizer of large scale telephone sales fraud.

Lyndon Jeffries
Finance frauds concerning leases, hire purchase agreements, loans and guarantees.

Paul Adrian Smith
Insurance agency frauds concerning misselling of home income schemes to the elderly.  Misuse of clients’ money and breach of fiduciary duty.

Jones and Garvey
“Alchemy” national pyramid selling fraud on a huge scale.

Letizia
Business and insurance fraud. Dishonest avoidance of the consequences of insolvency.

Basher v. Nationwide Building Society (1992)
Representative action re ATM frauds and “phantom withdrawals” involving nearly all principal high street banks and building societies. Required detailed familiarization with banking transmission and security systems.

Jazz - regularly attend New Orleans Jazz festival

Vintage Cars

Football