Raj Dayal
Solicitor

Raj Dayal

Raj had made a firm decision in her relatively early days to pursue a career in law.  After completing her formal education, she purposefully embraced her ambition by way of obtaining employment as a freelance paralegal.  Raj spent her early years gathering experience at one of the top criminal firms in the country, Christian Khan Solicitors, where she came upon the opportunity to work on a number of landmark cases.

Raj qualified as a solicitor in February 2010, having completed her training contract at Charles Simmons Solicitors.  She was invited to join the city firm of Rustem Guardian Solicitors in April 2010. She has taken a good foothold in the Serious Crime Department of that firm.

Both personally and professionally, Raj carries a zeal and passion for fairness in particular.  She is known to have fought valiantly in her clients' corner in multiple situations. She knows that material not disclosed by the prosecution often includes material beneficial to the defence. To that end she deals competently with disclosure issues, ensuring Crown comply fully with their statutory disclosure duties.

By gaining experience in several complex cases, Raj has developed a client base of her own that crosses racial and geographic divides.  Indeed her work ranges from the north of England in Birmingham to cases down to the south west coast through to Cornwall.

Raj has learnt from those in the profession that the choice of counsel considerably improves the probability of winning a case. Indeed, she has worked with some of the most eminent QC’s and juniors in the country.

RAJ’S SPECIALISATIONS ARE IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

•    Fraud/FSA offences

•    Money laundering.

•    Drugs supply 

•    Unlawful Importation

•    Homicide and serious violence.

Case History

R v M & Others

The client is indicted with 10 co-defendants charged with conspiracy to defraud. The prosecution has  alleged the defendants organised car accidents in order to make false claims to insurance companies. The ruse is better known by the colloquialism cash for crash.  (Shahid Rashid)

R v W.A & Others

Representing a client who is facing number of fraud charges. Arrests were made after a long running investigation into a series of linked crimes occurring throughout the North East area of London. The case involves a number of males who would attend the homes of elderly or vulnerable persons dressed as police officers.  They would deceive these people into giving details of their bank accounts. (Shahid Rashid & Kuljeet Dobi)

R -v-Vijayarheaven & Others

Prosecution of a young 22 year student having achieved top results in his 'A' levels charged with his equally highly qualified friends in a conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm in a park after a football match dispute. (Mark Dennis QC & Dominic Bell)

R v Bhana & Others

Company director indicted with three co-defendants with conspiracy to blackmail.  The Crown  has  alleged that Mr Bhana demanded £400,000 from the victim.  It was said to be a business debt which the company failed to recover through adjudication. It was alleged Mr Bhana enlisted the help of others to collect the debt. (Shahid Rashid)

R v Manpreet Chahal

A young 22 year old boy was indicted for the murder of his flat mate in Slough.  A Sikh ceremonial sword was used to inflict over 100 injuries to the victim.  It was described by pathologist Dr Fegan Earl "as some of the worse injuries I have ever seen". Case preparation required investigations in foreign jurisdictions.  (Jerome Lynch QC & Shahid Rashid)

R v Izuchukuw & Others

A solicitor and  six co-defendants charged with conspiracy to defraud . This was multiple mortgage frauds totalling some £19 million applied to the purchase of hundreds of new-built flats in South East London.   Mr Izuchukuw was a partner at two firms during the conspiracy period. He was alleged to have been involved in the conveyancing of the titles, and the transfer of profits of the fraud to numerous bank accounts of individual companies. Raj had 6 weeks to prepare case as crown delayed charging the client.    (Patrick Upward QC & Sten Reiz)

R v Perry Silver & Others (VHCC)

It was alleged the Royal Oak taxi garage in West London was used as a hub for a vast money laundering (£100 million) and drug supply conspiracy.  (Mark Dennis QC & Shahid Rashid)

R v Mark Dennard & Others ( VHCC)

This case concerned two groups of Romany Travellers based essentially in Kent. They were under police surveillance in August 2006 in the Dover and environs as being involved in large scale cross-channel smuggling of tobacco and narcotics as well as cash flight across the same territory, to facilitate successive smuggling operations.  There were eleven defendants, the tobacco alone that was seized amounted to some 4 tons from 18 separate seizures. The ensuing POCA proceedings were the subject of a significant Court of Appeal Judgement. (Michael Oliver & Roy Headlam)

R v Bill Saunders & Others

S indicted with murder with three others. The conviction was overturned under the landmark ruling on joint enterprise R v A.B.C.D. (Jerome Lynch QC & Ravi Sukul)

R v Douglas Johnson & Others

Raj represented the girlfriend of the person charged with the contract killing of Charlie Butler which was captured on CCTV and broadcast on BBC “Crimewatch”. This high profile case collapsed in June 2008 due to witness anonymity concerns.  At the retrial Ms Lavender was given a suspended sentence, which was appealed by  Attorney General  (Stephen Leslie QC & Shahid Rashid)

R v Herjit Bains  & Others

Mr Bains and three co-defendants with faced an indictment containing a count of murder. The victim was the client’s flat mate, whose body was dumped on Woolwich Common.  The case involved a cut throat defence.  Case preparation included the taking of witness statements in foreign jurisdictions.  (Sallie Bennett Jenkins QC & Dominic Bell)

R v Christopher Burcombe & Others

Mr Burcombe was indicted with conspiracy to evade the duty chargeable on tobacco goods.  Mr Burcombe has been granted leave to appeal his conviction on the basis that there was irregular selection of the jury.  Two  members of the jury were arrested and put on trial along with the  main jury officer .  The jury officer was found guilty and received a prison term (Robert Banks & Shahid Rashid)

R v Hersi & Others

This case concerned the activities of a predominantly Somalian Organised Crime Group in  2004. The Activities of the organisation involved the Supply of Class A Drugs and laundering the proceeds. The  activities were  supported and enforced through the supply and use of serious firearms. The organisation recruited a corrupt solicitor.  (Michael Massih QC & Shahid Rashid)

Cases she assisted in:

R v Waheed Mahmood (VHCC) – A year-long ‘fertiliser’ terrorism case. (Michael Massih QC & Rodrick Price)

R v Gassell Gordon - The first leading black estate agent to be prosecuted for money laundering (Michael Massiah QC & Tanoo Mylvaganam)