Craig Monty
Partner
Email: craig.monty@dickinson-dees.com
Tel: (01642) 631 717
Fax: (01642) 631 100
Camden House
Prince's Wharf
Teesdale
Stockton on Tees
TS17 6QY
How To Find Tees Valley
Expertise
- Craig worked for the City law firm Lovells for 17 years, the last 5 of which were as a partner, before joining Dickinson Dees as a partner in 2004 when he returned to his native North East. He now heads up the Commercial Disputes Group in the firm’s Tees Valley office.
Craig has operated as a disputes lawyer throughout his career and has wide experience of the full range of disputes in which commercial organisations can find themselves involved. He has handled general contractual and tortious disputes as well as more specialised matters such as – fraud matters, professional negligence claims, pensions/financial services disputes, agency/distributorship disputes, partnership matters, private trust disputes, and tax disputes. He also has considerable experience of product liability matters principally acting for clients in the tobacco industry defending smoking and health claims.
Craig is an experienced litigator in both the High Court and County Court, and has taken a number of cases to the House of Lords. He also has considerable experience of arbitration and alternative dispute mechanisms.
Craig has Higher Rights of audience, allowing him to present cases in all civil courts in England and Wales.
Experience
Pension Disputes
• Advising employers and trustees in disputes about the funding of occupational pension schemes.
• Advising a representative beneficiary in proceedings concerning a scheme in deficit where the employer was in administration.
• Acting for an independent trustee facing multiple allegations of breach of trust.
• Acting for a company alleged to have breached contractual promises relating to the pension of a senior executive.
• Handling a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman on behalf of the independent trustee of a pension scheme which is being wound up with a significant deficit. The complaint makes allegations against former trustees whom it is said abused their position by making inappropriate loans from pension scheme assets to companies which they owned.
Fraud Matters
• Involvement on various aspects of the collapse of BCCI.
• Acting for a prominent Arab gentleman accused of defrauding his employer.
• Acting for the liquidators of an insolvent metal trading company in proceedings against various directors and employees said to have defrauded the company.
• Acting for a multinational brewer against an employee alleged to have been skimming commissions paid to a manpower provider.
Professional Negligence
• Acting for firms of solicitors alleged to have been negligent, particulary in a pensions context.
• Advising on a claim against a firm of accountants in connection with their failure to identify a fraud perpetrated by a director of a company they had audited.
• Acting for a major bank in connection with a claim against a firm of surveyors for undervaluing certain properties taken as security.
• Advising on a claim against a firm of actuaries arising out of the miscalculation of an underpin in a pension scheme.
• Advising on a claim against a firm of accountants in respect of a failure to ensure that an EMI scheme was tax compliant.
Tax Disputes
• Acting for a taxpayer on a claim to recover input VAT from HMRC where it was said that the taxpayer had knowledge of a carousel fraud.
Professional Memberships
- Association of Pensions Lawyers (APL)
Related Services
Additional Information
Craig lives in Stockton-on-Tees with his wife Nora. He is a keen sports fan, particularly Middlesbrough Football Club and horse racing.