Your Partners in Law
Richard Atkins
RICHARD ATKINS
Consultant
Richard Atkins attended the former Polytechnic of Central London (LLB), Kings College London, (LLM), and the former City of London Polytechnic (MA Business Law). After completing his articles with Anthony Gold, he remained there for five years before joining the Crown Prosecution Service. He served in the London Area at the Central Casework Unit Headquarters, becoming head of a special casework unit. Richard moved to the former DTI™ and HMRC™ as both a manager and special casework lawyer. He then joined Knights Solicitors after nearly 25 years of public service, becoming a Partner on 11 June 2012. Richard also served on the Law Officer’s Confiscation and Delivery Board, and was a former Chair of the Whitehall Prosecutors Group on Confiscation.
Richard qualified as a higher court advocate (crime) in 1998 and is able to represent clients in any criminal court. He regularly appears in magistrates’ and crown courts, and has appeared in the High Court Queen's Bench Division and the Court of Appeal. He is one of only a few solicitors on the CPS Advocacy Panel assessed at level 2.
Richard’s Reported Cases
Richard has served capably in many cases. Some of these include:
- R v Baden Lowe [2009] EWCA Crim 194: Confirming the appropriateness of double recovery (compensation and confiscation) and limiting scope for abuse of process arguments in confiscation proceedings (Crown Court advocate led by Andrew Mitchell QC).
- Seager v Blatch [2009] EWCA Crim 1303: Lifting the corporate veil in confiscation proceedings.
- R v Hashash [2006] EWCA Crim 2518: Disclosure, abuse of process, and substitution of another offence in the Court of Appeal.
- R v May (Raymond George) [2005] EWCA Crim 97: Confiscation apportionment.
- R v SL & Ors [2001] EWCA Crim 1829: Surveillance and disclosure requirements for undercover operations.
- R v John Palmer [2002] EWCA Crim 892: Time share fraud.
- R v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Ex p. Pinochet Ugarte (No.1) [2000] 1 AC 61: Extradition application for General Pinochet.
- R v Jonathon Aidan Tokeley-Parry (1998) CA (Crim Div): Egyptian antiquities smuggling.
Skilled Mentor
In March 2012, Richard was invited by the Commonwealth Secretariat as a designated criminal law mentor to assist as a mentor in a working group appointed by the DPP of Mauritius. This was in order to make recommendations for the creation of a new asset forfeiture unit, and
participate as a key speaker on a series of seminars. In 2014 and 2015, Richard was the UK delegate for the European Criminal Lawyers Association conference in Trier to protect the financial interests of the E.U. In January 2016, Richard decided to reduce his management responsibilities with Knights Solicitors but remains as an associate of the firm. Richard’s pastimes include renovating his seventeenth century cottage and research into the English Kingdom of France.