Thom is regularly instructed to advise and represent police forces in cases across the wide range of legal issues which arise in the context of modern policing, and is ranked in The Legal 500.  By their nature, these cases often involve highly sensitive material, for which Thom has the necessary government security vetting.  He is currently instructed by the Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Northleigh, the criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower disaster.

His particular areas of expertise include:

·      Police misconduct, including appeals to the PAT and judicial review;

·      Search warrants and production orders;

·      Undercover investigations, such as those involving the use of Covert Human Intelligence
Sources or the interception of communications data under the Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000 or Investigatory Powers Act 2016;

·      Information rights and data protection law;

·      Judicial review, including claims under the Human Rights Act 1998;

·      Civil actions against the police;

·      Firearms licensing applications and appeals;

·      Inquests, including deaths in police custody; and

·      Civil forfeiture.

Notable Cases

Cambridgeshire Police v Latimer (2022)
Instructed by the police in misconduct proceedings against a former officer who targeted vulnerable women for the purposes of sexual gratification.  The case was widely reported on BBC and ITV news. 

Bedfordshire Police v XYZ (2022)
Instructed by the police in successfully resisting a high-value civil claim alleging a breach of the claimant’s data protection rights. 

ABC (2021)
Instructed by specialist counter terror police in care proceedings in the Family Division of the High Court relating to the daughter of a suspected terrorist who travelled to Syria to join ISIS. 

Inquest touching the death of RU (2021)
Represented the police in an inquest involving the death of a UKIP candidate, involving allegations of police corruption. 

MM (2020)
Instructed by the police in judicial review proceedings brought by a suspected terrorist in respect of an alleged breach of the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al Qa-ida (Asset Freezing) Regulations 2011. 

Metropolitan Police v LM (2020)
Represented the police in an asset forfeiture case involving a joint investigation with the FBI into the laundering of £0.5m in Bitcoin using the Dark Web. 

Douherty v Chief Constable of Essex Police [2019] EWCA Civ 55
Represented the police in Court of Appeal proceedings against a finding of contempt of court, brought on the basis of alleged breaches of Article 6 and procedural unfairness arising from lack of legal representation.