Clare Hennessy

Call 2009

Clare Hennessy | Call 2009

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Overview

Clare became a CPS Grade 2 prosecutor in 2012. Prior to joining Chambers, she was a tenant at a leading set of criminal chambers and she has also undertaken secondments with both the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Service Authority. This gave her considerable practical experience of, for example, the disclosure regime in complex criminal cases. She continues to accept instructions to appear in the criminal courts from healthcare professionals.

Experience & expertise

Clare’s work in this field includes:

  • an appearance in the Court of Appeal to successfully appeal a manifestly excessive sentence of imprisonment;
  • an appearance in the Court of Appeal to successfully appeal a destruction order passed in relation to a Staffordshire Bull Terrier;
  • acting as junior counsel for a defendant in a multi-million pound fraud case prosecuted by the Federation Against Copyright Theft. The case was indicted as a conspiracy to defraud and communicating copyright works to the public. Clare drafted legal arguments regarding the validity of search orders and requests for information under RIPA 2000. Clare was the junior involved in drafting an abuse of process application and applications to exclude evidence. There was extensive computer evidence from two conflicting expert witnesses and legal arguments based on EU Copyright law; and
  • instructed as a junior for the first defendant in a case prosecuted by Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. As well as counts under the Fraud Act 2006, there were a number of breaches of the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 and the Cattle Identification Regulations 2006.

Clare’s secondments with the Serious Fraud Office and what is now the Financial Conduct Authority have given her particular insight into the disclosure regime in complex criminal cases, including when legal professional privilege applies and when documentation created by the City of London Police is subject to public interest immunity.