Judith Constable

Background

Solicitor: 2000
Called to the Bar: 2012

Practice areas

Regulatory crime
Serious crime
Financial crime
General crime

What others say

Leading Junior

Legal 500 2023

‘Judith is exceptionally thorough and drills down into the details. She is always calm and measured. She understands the needs of local authority clients, and meets those needs in a clear and accessible manner. A great communicator.’

Legal 500 2022 Leading Juniors

‘Judith is approachable, pragmatic, easy to work with, providing excellent written work’

Client

Profile

Judith is a very experienced regulatory prosecutor and a Level 3 prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

She was employed by the Environment Agency for over 17 years, and before that by Devon County Council and Torbay Council. She was seconded to CPS in house as a trial advocate. Since she joined Chambers in 2018, Judith has prosecuted and defended regularly in the Crown Courts across the South West.

Alongside, Judith has developed a significant regulatory practice; she prosecutes and defends regulatory crime and in view of her experience, has been instructed by various Regulators to write in-house policies and to write and deliver training.

Regulatory

Judith’s regulatory practice includes planning advice and prosecutions, Trading Standards, food hygiene, animal licencing and welfare, fisheries, waste, illegal tree felling, RSPCA, nuisance, health and safety, housing and education. She has extensive experience of regulatory cases both in the Crown Court and before either a lay bench or a District Judge in the Magistrates court.

Judith is exceptionally well placed to assist in-house regulatory prosecutors as she has considerable experience and understanding of the dynamics of working with an in-house legal team. She believes in the importance of teamwork, and of achieving consensus that includes lawyers, case officers, team leaders and managers in the decision-making process. When in-house, Judith’s experience included everything from the initial case review and advice, drafting summons and case summary, preparation of all papers, selection of bundles, disclosure and then finally advocacy. She prosecuted a number of high profile regulatory cases of significant local or national companies, either as led junior or junior alone.

Ancillary to prosecutions, Judith has advised upon and obtained Criminal Behaviour Orders, substantial POCA orders and disqualification of company directors. She has advised on, prepared and obtained environmental remediation agreements and orders. In appropriate cases, she has found prosecution can be used to achieve reform and is not merely an end in itself.

Judith has more than 20 years’ experience of writing and delivering training material for regulatory officers and lawyers. In 2022 she delivered a series of bespoke training sessions for an in-house regulatory team.

Around the time of the pandemic, she did a considerable amount of work for the Serious Fraud Office as specialist counsel advising on legal professional privilege.

Judith is able to accept instructions from Public Access clients and is regulated by the Bar Standards Board

Judith has a degree is in archaeology; in 2022 she walked Hadrian’s Wall. She is a Fence Judge for British Eventing and member of Devon Wildlife Trust and Devon Archaeology Society.

Recent Regulatory Cases

R (Plymouth City Council) v W and W (2022). Prosecution for fraud and Animal Licencing (Trading Standards prosecution relating to unlicensed dog breeding)
R (Exeter City Council) v R and R (2022). Prosecution of noise nuisance arising from barking dogs
R (South Hams District Council) v B and N (2022). Prosecution for illegal waste deposit
R (Marine Management Organisation) v DP (2022). Prosecution for failure to submit landing declarations
R (Exeter City Council) v M (2022). Prosecution of housing and related offences
R (Devon County Council) v W (2022). Prosecution of education offences
R (Forestry Commission) v D (2021). Defence of a person charged with offences relating to restocking notice
R (Plymouth City Council) v SWWL (2021). Prosecution of a company for Health and Safety offence (items falling from a forklift truck causing injury)
R (Cornwall Council) v D (2021). Defence of a planning prosecution, including arguments about disclosure and abuse of process.
R (Plymouth City Council) v B (2021). Prosecution of various waste offences, including depositing asbestos
R (Plymouth City Council) v G (2020). Prosecution of illegal deposits of waste, Criminal Behaviour Order following conviction
R (Cornwall Council) v T (2019). Judith defended one of a number of defendants charged with Trade Marks offences; her client was acquitted at an early stage in the trial.
R (Plymouth City Council) v C (2019). Prosecution of an individual for a variety of waste offences; including a criminal behaviour order following conviction.
R (Environment Agency) -v- Glebe Quarries Ltd (2019). Prosecution of the illegal deposit of asbestos; and the sentence included a detailed remediation order.
RSPCA v C (2018). Defence of a person charged with offences under the Animal Welfare Act.