Kwaku Awuku-Asabre

Contact Kwaku: KwakuAwuku-Asabre@matrixlaw.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7404 3447

Contact Kwaku's Practice Team (Team T): TeamT@matrixlaw.co.uk

Kwaku has appeared both as single advocate and junior counsel in a wide variety of cases ranging from R v JA, murder trial to R v LA, an Environmental Agency (“EA”) prosecution in which the EA sought a benefit figure of £4.6m, to DP v AS, a matter in the Privy Council where the appellant sought to pierce the corporate veil to SF, a lengthy article 2 Coroner’s inquest.

Outside court Kwaku has acted in financial crime investigations for the Financial Conduct Authority and Serious Fraud Office and worked in an an advisory capacity at HRMC as ARIS counsel. For the Government Legal Department, Kwaku has worked on disclosure projects in relation to both the Grenfell Tower and Cyprus Colonial Litigation.

Before pursuing a career in the law, Kwaku worked as a fixed income analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch dealing primarily with structured products in the UK banks space. Prior to commencing pupillage, Kwaku worked as a paralegal for Lambeth Council on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Financial Crime

HMRC

• Sat within the Criminal Law (Illicit Finance and Economic Crime) Advisory Team, advising investigative teams and internal lawyers on financial crime issues and strategy.

 FCA

• Part of the investigative team at the FCA conducting its first dual track investigation – both regulatory and criminal – against the Natwest. This resulted in the first criminal prosecution by the FCA under MLR 2007 and convictions for the bank.
• Part of a team carrying out an investigation into Santander UK for repeated anti-money laundering failures. This investigation resulted in Santander UK being fined £107.7m.

SFO

• Part of a team investigating at £100m fraud whereby a fund lent money to law firms pursuing no-win-no-fee cases.

Defence

R v DS: DS was alleged to have collected sensitive and secret material between 2018 and 2021 and provided it to Russian agents in return for payment, while working as a security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin. After a Newton Hearing DS was sentenced a total sentence of imprisonment of 13 years and 2 months, with 7 of his 8 sentences running concurrently.

R v JA: Murder trial. Junior Counsel for the first defendant where the second defendant ran a cut-throat defence. There was a substantial amount of unused material to review, substantial legal argument concerning bad character, identification and exclusion of evidence, in a trial involving 15 live civilian witnesses.

R v LA: Junior counsel representing a director of several companies in complex confiscation proceedings brought by the Environment Agency in which EA alleged that the corporate veil should be pierced, and that personal benefit was in excess of £4.6m. A settlement was successfully negotiated of the confiscation order with a benefit figure of £200,000 and an available amount also of £200,000.

R v AT: Aggravated burglary. Despite relevant previous convictions and comments by defendant leading to further convictions relied upon against him in trial, defendant acquitted of the charge.

R v DG: Acted for DG (she/her), a recovering heroine addict who had committed a domestic burglary having committed several domestic burglaries previously. DG had a traumatic upbringing made worse by several frustrated attempts to transition from male to female. The court was persuaded to take the unusual course of adjourning sentence to allow time for expert reports, medication to be taken and for the transition process to begin. At sentence the court was persuaded to find that exceptional circumstances existed such that the mandatory minimum sentence should not be imposed in this case.

Road Traffic

Kwaku represents clients in driving matters on a frequent basis, in cases ranging from death by careless driving to speeding and use of a mobile phone whilst driving. In each matter he brings the attention to detail and nuanced approach necessary to be effective in this area of law.

• R v JE: Death by careless driving in which JE collided fatally with a cyclist who was pregnant at the time. On a plea and full admission and remorse for the offence a suspended sentence was secured.
• R v YC: An allegation of careless driving. Both YC and the complainant suffered life altering injuries including brain damage following a collision at night, neither party able to remember the incident at all.
• R v NC: Successfully represented a former policeman seen by two officers allegedly using mobile phone whilst driving.

Direct Access

• Kwaku accepts direct access instructions on an advisory basis for Road Traffic sentences. Kwaku has built up extensive experience in this area and from this experience understands that there are instances where individuals may feel that they want to attend court without representation or otherwise cannot accommodate full legal representation at court. Kwaku offers conferences to assist those who wish to self-represent at their sentence in court.

Appeals

Appeals cases include:

• DP v AS: Privy Council Appeal concerning piercing of the cooperate veil to allow a party to a contract concerning the rental of commercial property to trace liability to DP as opposed to the company operated by DP which DP held to be the tenant under contract.
• R v JT: Appeal involving 15 separate sets of offences committed across the course of a year. 8-month detention and training order given unlawfully in the Magistrates court. An approach considering the correct approach to youth sentencing was set out in a skeleton argument and found favour with the court. On appeal the sentence was varied to 4 months Detention and Training Order.

Inquests

Inquests include:

• SF: Successful representation of a General Practitioner in a complex and lengthy article 2 jury inquest involving several police forces and NHS hospital trusts.

Regulatory

Kwaku has acted for the NMC acting as a case presenter in a number of matters.

Education and Qualifications

CPS Level 1

Lord Mansfield Scholarship, Lincoln’s Inn BPTC: City Law School

GDL: City Law School

B.Sc. Economics and Philosophy, London School of Economics (2011)

Other

Kwaku is a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Young Fraud Lawyers Association and Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers.

Kwaku is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. In order to provide legal services to his clients, including advice and representation services, Kwaku needs to collect and hold personal data. This includes his clients’ personal data and the personal data of others who feature in the matter in which he is instructed. To read Kwaku’s privacy notice in full, please see here.