Patrick Boyers

Motoring and Driving Offences

Patrick specialises in legally complex and technical motoring matters, advising his clients on the best possible route map to achieve their objectives and the optimal outcome. Patrick is praised for the way he handles his cases in Court and the skill he displays in advocating on behalf of his clients in the courtroom. He strives to provide complete, informed, and realistic advice to his clients so that they can identify their goals and have the representation needed to achieve them.

Whilst based in Manchester, Patrick’s practice is national and he will take on clients from Edinburgh to Eastbourne, representing and attending with clients in Magistrates’ Courts, Crown Courts, and higher.

Patrick has a niche expertise in the commercial transport sector, advising haulage, bus, and coach operators on how to train their drivers and address motoring offences committed in commercial vehicles. He is well-placed not only to advise on the implications of motoring offences, but also the regulatory consequences for drivers and operators in front of the Traffic Commissioner if there is a conviction. 

Regulatory

Patrick has advised and represented both businesses and individuals on all variety of regulatory matters, including but not limited to matters brought by:

• The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
• The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• The Competition Markets Authority (CMA)
• The Environment Agency (EA)
• Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• Local Authorities
• The Food Standards Agency (FSA)
• The Office of the Traffic Commissioner
• The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
• Trading Standards
• The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA)
• The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA)

Patrick’s regulatory practice spans both advisory and contentious cases. He advises businesses striving towards mergers and acquisitions on the implications of purchasing regulated business (or buying into corporate groups containing regulated companies), such as assisting making ‘Change in Control’ applications to acquire FCA-authorised firms. He also works with and guides commercial vehicle operators on the standards and processes the Traffic Commissioner expects to be in place, to help those companies stay in business.

Patrick has been instructed to provide advice to international undertakings on the implications of customs procedures and border crossings, as well having been engaged to advise on the impact of international sanctions on cross-jurisdictional supply chains.

In destressed situations, Patrick will defend actions brought by, or bring actions against, the regulator, which includes defending criminal proceedings, all the way up to advising and acting in regulatory or civil matters, such as collective proceedings brought as class actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal or tax matters heard in the First-Tier or Upper Tribunal.

Judicial Review

Advising and representing clients in their relationship with the regulators requires Patrick to possess a detailed understanding of public law matters, and actions brought in court against public bodies, including government departments. He has acted in judicial reviews brought against Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the Department for Transport, and the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing, and Communities.

His vast technical ability has seen him instructed on matters of local public transport policy, and resulted in his having direct input into city centre road network strategy.

Criminal Defence

The majority of Patrick’s serious criminal practice revolves around prosecutions brought by agencies such as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), HMRC, Environment Agency, and The Marine Management Organisation (MMO). Ordinarily this will require identifying alleged breaches in regulations, ranging up to and including fraudulent misrepresentation in the form of false declarations.  

Notable Cases

• Successfully represented a distributor of electric bikes in resisting a prosecution brought by the DVSA, requiring a technical understanding of the engineering behind the electric motors fitted to these products. This was the third known case of its kind brought in the UK.
• Successfully appealed the ICO’s decision to uphold the decision of the Department for Levelling-Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) not to release information relevant to the production of the Private Parking Code of Practice. The ICO and DLUHC relied upon the exemption to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 that such information was held as part of the formulation of government policy, whereas it was argued on appeal that this was outweighed by the public interest.
• Advised, assisted, and acted in a multi-party judicial review brought by a local bus operator indigenous to Greater Manchester against the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, challenging the decision to franchise the city’s public bus network and introducing the ‘Bee Network’.
• Advised a municipal bus company on the potential exposure to allegations of anti-competitive conduct through receipt of state aid in the form of bus operators’ grants awarded by central government post-Covid.
• Advised an insurance brokerage over concerns of breaching FCA regulations regarding the promotion of regulated/controlled activity, and outlined key steps and stages in the navigation of those alleged breaches including the appropriate notifications to be made to the FCA.
• Represented a restricted haulage operator at public inquiry, specialising in stage equipment, to ensure that they were able to keep their operator’s licence after successfully making representations to persuade the DVSA to discontinue criminal proceedings.

Patrick is a keen player and supporter of both rugby league and rugby union, supporting his home club of Wigan Warriors in rugby league, and Sale Sharks in rugby union. Patrick undertakes work with a local project, StateTalking, ensuring that state-educated individuals are properly represented in all and any job or profession they choose.