Adam Pearson practises in criminal law and consumer law.

His criminal practice principally relates to the prosecution of serious organised crime involving large-scale conspiracies to supply Class A drugs, illegal firearms and high-value fraud and money laundering, together with serious offences of violence, including murder.

He has extensive experience and expertise in Trading Standards Prosecutions and other regulatory offences and is regularly instructed on behalf of local authorities, companies and private individuals in respect of such matters.

Adam has for many years been a Contributing Editor to the leading practitioner text Consumer and Trading Standards: Law and Practice, with responsibility for the law relating to Food Safety and Labelling.

He is the Consultant Editor for the law of Food and Drink in the current edition of Halsbury’s Laws of England.

CPS Panel appointments

General Crime Level 3

Key cases

Operation Igneous (Ongoing) – Prosecution Counsel in multi-handed Class A drugs conspiracy stemming from Operation Venetic and substantially based on Encrochat evidence.

Operation Brocatelle (2024-25) – Junior Prosecution Counsel in multi-handed firearms and Class A and B drugs conspiracy, involving the seizure of a lethal prohibited handgun and over 160 rounds of compatible ammunition.

Operation Vier (2024) – Defending first Defendant in multi-handed Class A drugs conspiracy.

Operation Nutmeg (2023-2024) – Junior Prosecution Counsel in prosecution of 7-handed conspiracy to supply Class A drugs in Leicester, instructed by East Midlands CPS Complex Crime Unit.

Operation Icarus (2023) – Prosecution for alleged Fraudulent Trading and CPUTR offences in relation to companies providing “Meet and Greet” parking services at Manchester Airport.

Operation Oxide (2023) – Prosecution Counsel in 8-handed conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and to conceal criminal property. The frauds involved the deliberate targeting of the elderly and vulnerable. In addition, the wider  money laundering conspiracy was a sophisticated enterprise, involving the laundering of their own and others’ frauds  to a value in excess of £1.6 million.

R v Ward and Others – Operation Merton (2021-2022) – Junior Prosecution Counsel led by Mary Loram QC in case of murder by stabbing. Adam conducted the sentencing proceedings and Newton Hearings for two others convicted of assisting an offender alone

Operation Forktail (2021) – Junior Prosecution Counsel in the prosecution of 9 defendants charged with a City-wide drug trafficking conspiracy, principally targeted with the supply of very significant quantities of class A (cocaine and MDMA) and Class B drugs to university students in Nottingham.

Operation Stock (2020) – Prosecution of three defendants for 4 month conspiracy to steal livestock, involving sheep being inhumanely slaughtered and butchered in their own fields in the dead of night. Having slaughtered the sheep, they would be butchered and the meat taken with the heads, fleece and entrails left for the farmers to find.

Further information

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