Willesden Magistrates' Court sees the whole of Brent pass through its doors: the match-day arrests at Wembley, the drivers caught on the North Circular, the shoplifters from Kilburn High Road, the domestic abuse allegations from every ward, and the drug supply, robbery and weapons cases that will be sent on to Harrow Crown Court. Criminal defence solicitors in Brent are in the Church End building daily, know its district judges and magistrates, and can say from experience how a first hearing, a bail application or a trial is likely to run.
The stadium gives the borough a criminal caseload of its own. Football banning orders, unauthorised ticket sales, pyrotechnics, entering the pitch and public order offences around Wembley Park on event days are prosecuted in volume, and so are the assaults and drink-related offences that follow a big match or concert. The rest is the ordinary business of a large borough: motoring offences, from speeding and drink driving to the totting-up cases where a licence and a job are at stake; drugs, including county lines cases involving teenagers; fraud and money laundering; and regulatory prosecutions of landlords and businesses by Brent Council.
Nobody should be interviewed by the police without a solicitor. The advice is free at the police station for everyone, whether arrested or attending voluntarily, and Brent's custody suites are covered by duty solicitors and by local firms that clients can ask for by name. Interpreters are routine. Legal aid continues at court for most defendants, means-tested in the magistrates' court and sometimes with contributions at the Crown Court; Brent has a strong tradition of legal aid practice. Driving offences and other privately funded cases are usually quoted as fixed fees.
Criminal defence firms serving Brent appear below, verified firms first. For reading, see what criminal law involves, the general criminal law solicitors page and can I get legal help for free; for the Crown Court across the border see criminal law solicitors in Harrow.
Verified