AUS v R [2024] EWCA Crim 322
Colin acted for a Somali refugee who was sentenced to 1 year imprisonment for using a false ID in 2010. The Court of Appeal quashed her conviction because she had used the ID to seek asylum. If she had been advised about the ‘refugee defence’ by her former criminal solicitors, the defence would have likely succeeded. Instead, our client pleaded guilty without receiving proper advice and her resulting conviction was an injustice.
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2024/322.html
BZ v SSHD [2024] EWHC 792 (Admin)
Colin acted for an Iraqi asylum seeker in a judicial review of his detention by the Home Office. The High Court granted interim relief following a contested hearing, ordering that our client be urgently released to an asylum support address. See judgment here.
BSG v R [2023] EWCA Crim 1041
Colin acted for BSG, a victim of modern slavery, in a successful appeal resulting in the Court of Appeal quashing his childhood convictions for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs. The Court of Appeal found that there had been a ‘clear injustice’ because the client’s previous representatives had failed to advise him about a defence which would probably have succeeded.
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2023/1041.html
AH v SSHD [2023]
Colin acted for this client in a successful challenge to the Home Office’s notice that they intended to remove him to Rwanda. The client is now recognised as a refugee in the UK.
MZMR v SSHD [2023]
Colin acted for this client in a successful judicial review of a decision to refuse to grant him discretionary leave to remain in line with the Home Office’s policy regarding victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.
ZXK v Chief Constable of Kent Police [2023]
Colin’s client received substantial damages after being unlawfully arrested and searched by the police, and because of failures to identify him as a victim of human trafficking.
NA v SSHD [2022]
Colin acted in a judicial review of the Home Office’s decision that our client must wear a GPS ankle tag, which monitored our client’s whereabouts 24/7. The Upper Tribunal granted interim relief, ordering that the tag be removed. Our client was a victim of human trafficking and was particularly vulnerable to harm from being constantly monitored.
AB v The Home Office [2022]
Colin acted in a successful civil action against the Home Office, who detained our client in reliance on an unlawful policy of detaining European citizens deemed to be ‘rough sleepers’.
CT v Home Office [2019]
Colin acted in a successful judicial review of a negative asylum decision made under the Detained Fast Track process, and he assisted his client to obtain a substantial damages award for false imprisonment by the Home Office.
QE v Home Office [2018]
This was an urgent ‘Dublin III’ case for a disputed minor. The client was facing imminent removal to Italy which Colin successfully challenged via judicial review. The case was then transferred to the County Court where substantial damages for false imprisonment were agreed.
XEM v Home Office [2018]
The client was detained and facing deportation on a charter flight which Colin stopped via a grant of interim relief and a successful challenge to a section 94B certification decision. The client won her deportation appeal and then Colin began a civil claim in the County Court leading to a substantial settlement for false imprisonment.
YZ v Home Office [2017]
Colin acted for a very vulnerable client who was detained and facing imminent removal under Dublin III. The removal was successfully challenged via judicial review, after an appeal to the Court of Appeal, before the claim was transferred to the County Court where the client received a substantial settlement for false imprisonment.
Colin has also written about the criminalisation of victims of human trafficking for the Cambridge Law Journal and ECHR blog.
