Stephen Mather

Called to the Bar in 1997, Stephen Mather is an accomplished advocate specialising in criminal law. He has built a reputation as a highly experienced advocate with a heavyweight practice encompassing both prosecution and defence dealing with blackmail, complicated and substantial fraud, serious violence, drugs importation and historic sexual offences. He is a Grade 3 prosecutor.

Stephen is relied upon as leading counsel to prosecute in large-scale drugs and money laundering conspiracies, often with an international dimension. He is fully conversant with the POCA regime and cross-border money laundering. One recent case, R v H and R (Isleworth Crown Court) involved complicated issues with a multi-jurisdictional dimension concerning Hawala banking which historically has acted as an alternative method of significant international money transfer outside the regulated banking system.  In this case the purported Hawala transfers were used in a complex but co-ordinated series of transactions to disguise the source, ultimate destination and purpose of the funds. By careful examination of voluminous material, explanatory pictorial diagrams and the use of expert witness evidence it was successfully demonstrated to the jury that the transactions were illegal.

Stephen is regularly instructed to defend in serious sexual matters and is hugely experienced in dealing with allegations of historic offending. Solicitors choose him for his knowledgeable, measured and common- sense approach in order to represent his client’s best interests at trial.

Stephen’s ability to represent clients stems partly from his teaching background and his previous career in artist management in the music business.  After switching to the Bar Stephen combined his busy practice with an academic career as a Senior Lecturer in Law at Kingston University where he taught criminal and contract law at undergraduate and graduate level.  He was responsible for the Civil Litigation and Arbitration modules on the LLM.  Stephen regularly taught aspects of law (contract/tort) to non-lawyers (civil engineers, surveyors, trade union personnel, deputy headteachers) short courses which formed part of their continuing development (CPD).  For three years between 2011 -2014 Stephen taught visiting members of the French judiciary common law at Imperial College. London.

Stephen has received many recommendations over the years however the two most memorable are:

“A fine gentleman, and now a barrister” Steve Harley (Cockney Rebel)

“Stephen looks like a pirate but he’s alright really…” HHJ Phillip Shorrock (Woolwich Crown Court)