Robert Venables KC, 78, a leading barrister at Old Square Tax Chambers, is alleged to have falsified his earnings declarations between 2014 and 2021, Southwark Crown Court heard this week.

Venables was called to the bar in 1973 and appointed to King’s Counsel (KC) in 1990, formerly Queen’s Counsel.

The tax barrister has been charged with three counts of cheating the public revenue related to earnings and a company which he set up, all of which was vehemently denied by Venables’ defence.

Barrister for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Julian Christopher KC, claimed in his opening argument that Venables ‘paid almost £2m less tax than he should have done’ and had received his income as a tax barrister through an ‘elaborate system’.

The co