Sonia Birdee

"Sonia was very good at relating to the family in a particularly sensitive case."

Instructing solicitor 2008

"...very professional and thorough preparation..."

Instructing solicitor 2008

Practice

Criminal law experience
Sonia undertakes a wide range of criminal defence work in the Crown court including serious violent crime such as sexual assault and assault, kidnap and violent disorder (inc Section 18 offences), public disorder, ASBO proceedings, dishonesty (inc benefit fraud), arson, robbery, affray, burglary, theft, criminal damage, defending charges of fly tipping, Sexual Offence Prevention Orders, POCA and confiscation proceedings and immigration / passport and identity card offences. Has a keen interest in cases with civil liberties implications.

Sonia was led in 2010 in a large scale conspiracy to defraud. The defendant was accused of conspiring with others on the ‘darkmarket’ website to defraud banks, financial institutions and individuals.

Also has experience in Divisional Court and Court of Appeal (including a sentence appeal against a finding of dangerousness) and has successfully appealed a decision of the Magistrates by way of case stated.

Extensive experience of representing juveniles in trials in both the Youth Court and Crown Court. Also has experience of representing vulnerable defendants generally, including proceedings involving fitness to plead arguments. Regularly delivers in-house training sessions on this area.

Recent cases have included:

• Sexual touching and harassment (ongoing)
• Fraud (ongoing)
• JR of refusal to state a case (Sec. 5 public order; misapplied burden of proof) (ongoing)
• Application to vary a SOPO (2008)
• Indecent images; creating and possessing (2008)
• Multi-handed multi-count indictment for various robberies and burglaries (2007)
• Impersonating a police officer (2007)
• S v Director of Public Prosecutions [2006] EWHC 1207 (Admin) (appeal against conviction by way of case stated; refusal of adjournment, right to fair trial) (2006)
• Sexual offences: allegations by one juvenile family member against another; indecent assault in the workplace (2006 and 2007)
• Benefit fraud £50K value - Crown ultimately offered no evidence (2006)
  

Housing law experience
Undertakes all areas of housing law including homeless appeals, applications for judicial review, public law defences in possession claims, defending possession claims (against public and private landlords for neighbour nuisance and rent arrears), unlawful eviction, breach of covenant for quiet enjoyment, interference with goods, suitable alternative accommodation (in particular demolition) cases defending injunction proceedings, committal for contempt of court and disrepair.

Sonia has a particular interest in representing defendants with mental health issues.

Recent cases have included:

• Defending respondent in ASBO proceedings sought by Housing Association (ongoing)
• Charlotte v Herring (2007) Acting for Romany gypsy plaintiffs; site licenses / site regulation.
• O'Connor v Wrexham Borough Council (2006) Acting for appellant Romany gypsy couple; appeal against finding of intentional homelessness; human rights arguments.

Civil actions against the police
Assault by police officers, wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution. Experienced crime practitioner with a keen interest in civil actions against the police and other detaining authorities.

Other experience

Provides legal training across all areas of her practice.

Before pupillage, Sonia worked as part of the Travellers Advice Team at Community Law Partnership (Birmingham) providing emergency telephone advice to Travellers in respect of private evictions, negotiation with police and Local Authorities over unlawful evictions, site conditions and other duties, preparation of cases for Judicial Review and advocacy in the County Court.

Background

Sonia was previously a tenant at Central Chambers (Manchester) and prior to that undertook pupillage at Albion Chambers (Bristol).