Sarah Wood

Financial Crime, Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture, Confiscation, Financial Remedies (family); Private prosecutions.

Sarah is uniquely listed in three practice areas of Chambers and Partners for her asset forfeiture and confiscation work, her family financial remedies work and her private prosecution practice.

She specialises in criminal and family matters involving high-value assets and complex financial arrangements. She is one of a handful of barristers with extensive experience of cases where there are contemporaneous family financial remedy proceedings and criminal POCA claims. She has the knowledge and understanding to advise and represent clients in both sets of proceedings and provides practical realistic advice. Sarah frequently appears in both the High Court and the Family Court in this area of work and is regularly instructed to act on behalf of either a party or the CPS as the intervener in the proceedings because of her detailed knowledge of all related aspects of confiscation work.

As part of her specialised practice Sarah is also frequently instructed to represent third parties as Section 10A participants within confiscation proceedings and has the depth of knowledge to be able to be able to make submissions and arguments relating to complex trust arrangements, both within a domestic context and more broadly.

Sarah also specialises in the civil aspects of POCA work, including Account Freezing and Forfeiture applications, Cash Forfeiture and UWOs. This specialism extends to successfully representing third party victims to secure the return of stolen crypto assets to them.