Philip McGhee

Practice: Crime and Regulatory

Recommended in Crime - "Philip McGhee has a flourishing practice"    - The Legal 500 (2010)

Professional Experience

Philip undertakes advisory and advocacy work in criminal matters and before various professional regulatory and disciplinary tribunals.

In criminal matters, Philip prosecutes and defends (alone and as a led junior) general crime (including sexual offences, firearms offences, violence, controlled drugs offences, dishonesty and public order) and serious and organised crime (including money laundering and fraud). He is regularly instructed by the Special Casework and Organised Crime sections of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Philip conducts large-scale restraint, confiscation and forfeiture proceedings related to criminal matters, and often deals with complex disclosure issues, including those involving the assertion of public interest immunity. He has advised the prosecution in relation to provisions of the Extradition Act 2003 and the related European Framework Decision. Philip has experience in appellate work and in judicial review proceedings before the High Court.

Philip also prosecutes and defends in trading standards matters, in particular those concerning allegations of unfair commercial practice, unfair trading and false or misleading business advertising. He has also represented clients facing prosecution for breaches of workplace safety and fire safety regulations.

Philip is also instructed privately to advise and defend individuals and professionals before the criminal courts.

In the regulatory and disciplinary fields, Philip advises and represents professionals facing disciplinary and misconduct allegations before their regulatory bodies at both the interim and substantive hearing stages, particularly in the medical and care-related professions (including before the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Health Professions Council). He has also represented solicitors and other legal professionals subject to the regulation of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Philip also acts for regulators in fitness to practise proceedings at both the interim and substantive hearing stages. He has presented cases against practitioners accused of breaches of professional standards, sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour, and dishonesty.

Past Professional Experience

Philip practised for two years as an attorney (performing the duties of barrister and solicitor) at Walkers in the Cayman Islands. He advised clients and defended in criminal cases across the spectrum, including attempted murder, rape, drugs trafficking and serious violence. His work developed a particular emphasis on gang-related firearms offences and the handling of expert evidence in the fields of firearms discharge residue analysis, DNA and forensic pathology.  He conducted and was involved in appellate work before the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and the Privy Council, and also represented clients in civil actions against the police and in immigration appeal proceedings.

Recent Work

Crime

Philip’s recent prosecution work has included a number of conspiracies to supply large quantities of controlled drugs, and to transfer and possess prohibited weapons and firearms. This caseload has required the handling of expert evidence in matters such as firearms classification, mass spectrometry analysis and telephone cell siting and attribution, as well as dealing with complex issues of law, evidence and disclosure. Philip has also been instructed to prosecute in cases of child cruelty, sexual assault and serious violence.

Philip was recently led in the successful prosecution of several defendants across two conspiracies to import and to supply multi million-pound quantities of cocaine in a case involving the use of foreign telephone intercept evidence. The case led to the imposition of Serious Crime Prevention Orders, and Philip continues to have sole conduct of the confiscation proceedings which have followed.

Philip has also recently acted for several local authorities in the prosecution of trading standards offences relating to unfair commercial practices. He has also acted for the Security Industry Authority in civil proceedings relating to the licensing of door supervisors and other security personnel.

Philip’s recent defence work has including representing the director of a healthcare training company accused of fraudulent trading and immigration offences, and a company secretary facing Trademark Act offences. He has been led in the defence of a university professor charged with conspiracies to defraud, and has been instructed to defend individuals charged with sexual offences, including an employee at a residential care home for the elderly, and a man accused of the sexual assault of a lone woman at an Underground station.

Philip has also recently defended individuals charged with blackmail, serious violent offences (including wounding with intent), and firearms offences. He has also acted for young and mentally disordered persons, including a transsexual with severe Asperger’s Syndrome who faced offensive weapon charges.

Philip’s recent private work has included the successful defences of a senior legal professional facing a racially aggravated public order offence and an executive accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He has also defended clients facing harassment and driving- and motoring-related offences.

Regulatory and Disciplinary

Philip has recently advised and acted for the Nursing and Midwifery Council in fitness to practice proceedings concerning serious failures in record keeping and clinical good practice. He has also recently been instructed to present charges of dishonesty, falsification of records and failures to provide adequate patient care before the Conduct and Competence Committee.

Philip has recently represented nursing professionals facing allegations of sexual misconduct, possession of indecent images of children, and forming an inappropriate relationship with a patient. Before a panel of the General Medical Council Philip recently defended a trainee doctor who faces an allegation of performing an inappropriate intimate examination of a patient. In fitness to practise proceedings before the Health Professions Council, Philip has also recently defended an audiologist charged with dishonest failures in record keeping.

Before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Philip recently represented the partner of a solicitors firm charged with dishonesty and offences contrary to the Solicitors Accounts Rules, the Solicitors Practice Rules and the Solicitors Code of Conduct.

Additional Information

Speaks French
Admitted to the Cayman Islands Bar
Young Fraud Lawyers Association
Health and Safety Lawyers Association
Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers
Criminal Bar Association
Public Access Bar Association
Bar Pro Bono Unit volunteer panel member

Education and Scholarships

University of Oxford (St Edmund Hall)
Universite de Paris II (Pantheon-Assas)
Holy Cross College, Bury
Reid Scholarship, Senior Award and Prince of Wales Scholarship (Gray’s Inn)
Woolf Scholarship (1 Crown Office Row)