LONDON OFFICE

Cobleys Solicitors Ltd
Church Street Chambers

Second Floor
Goldsmith Building
Temple, London, EC4Y 7BL

Call: 0203 781 8010

PHILIP WILLIAM TURNER

From 1995 to 1997 Philip Turner was specially selected to be the Officer in Charge (OIC) of 2 separate investigations in to 2 high profile city centre solicitors’ practices. He was tasked with preparing and making applications to a number of circuit judges for search warrants in respect of schedule 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 as subsequently amended by The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Over 20 years ago Philip Turner was selected to be the OIC due to his then in-depth understanding of the legislation surrounding seizure of legal privilege material. Philip worked in close co-operation with the Chief Crown Prosecutor of Manchester CPS and the now Mr Justice Openshaw in his former role as leading counsel.

In 1995 whilst in Merseyside Police Serious Crime Squad worked as an investigator on the James Bulger Murder enquiry responsible for obtaining search warrants.

In 1999 whilst serving in the National Crime Squad he was specially commissioned to draft witness statements for the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police and the then Director General of the National Crime Squad. Philip Turner was selected out of the national pool of police officers due to his expertise and experience in respect of the granting of covert authorities for intrusive surveillance and directed under RIPA 2000 and Police Act 1997.

When Romania made their application to enter the European Union Philip Turner was selected by the Home Office to work with the Romanian police service looking at their police procedures and policies to consult to bring their policing in to line and to the required standard as demanded by an EU member.

Whilst working in a governance role within the Serious Organised Crime Agency in 2005 he was selected to review a number of investigations into organised crime groups. The task was to review each Senior Investigating Officers’ covert tactics and policy decisions, this included the use of search warrants, search and seizure processes, production orders, interview strategies and arrest approaches.

In 2007 responsible for obtaining and disseminating all the covert evidence for the Rhys Jones Murder enquiry for the Merseyside Police. As a consequence of Philip Turner’s success, impeccable conduct and professionalism he was employed by the Government to lecture on this subject to police forces and law enforcement agencies across Europe.

When a senior officer in SOCA Philip Turner was made responsible for vetting and allocating operations on a national basis of all the potential investigations that were to be conducted by SOCA within the Enforcement Directorate. The head of foreign police forces would present an application to him for SOCA to help investigate activities in the UK. It was Philip Turner’s function to decide whether SOCA could and would assist and then to allocate the investigation within the UK. His function required him to co-operate with law enforcement agencies on a global stage. This required him to work closely with the organisational heads of SOCA (the Director of Enforcement and the Director of Intelligence). He was responsible for liaising on a regular basis with officers of the government responsible for this area of policing.

2009 in the North West Region of SOCA he held responsibility of the management overview of all the operations being run in the region and was responsible for three monthly reviews of each investigation in respect of compliance and governance. He furthered his already extensive experienced as authorising officer of RIPA 2000 applications, renewals and reviews, in respect of surveillance and the obtaining of telephone communication data. He held the responsibility for vetting and granting authorisation to seek applications for search warrants and production orders under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and other legislation.

His final task prior to leaving SOCA saw SOCA task Philip Turner to create a training package throughout the organisation for newly appointed Senior Investigating Officers.

After 30 years of service in the police he was allowed to retire from SOCA in March 2011

In 2012 Philip Turner was head-hunted and joined the civil service working for the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Courts Service at Liverpool Crown Court. Within an extraordinarily short period of time he was promoted to Delivery Manager and given responsibility for the national roll out of the electronic submission of search warrant applications under Section 9 Schedule 1 of PACE 1984 and POCA 2002 into the court. In his roll Philip Turner worked in co-operation with the Lord Chancellors Department, circuit judges, the heads of business and with Her Majesty’s Courts Service. In one year 2014-15 his team at Liverpool Crown Court managed the application of c600 applications for search warrants and production orders specifically relating to special procedure material, excluded material and legally privileged material.

Philip Turner was one of the most experienced and knowledgeable police officers in the sphere of police powers and compliance. We feel privileged to have Philip Turner as a member of our Search Warrant / PACE compliance team.

                                  

Awards:

Philip Turner has been commended 24 times at the highest level throughout his career. Awarded the Police Long Service and Meritorious Conduct Medal. Awarded The Queens Jubilee Medal.

Our Search & Seizure
Operations Team