The pre-charge restraint order under POCA is doubtless one of the most draconian tools in the proceeds of crime armoury. It has the capacity to cripple businesses, be they bodies corporate or sole traders, almost overnight. Both divisions of the Court of Appeal have reminded the Crown of the draconian nature of these orders, perhaps none more so than in In re Stanford International Bank Ltd v Serious Fraud Office [2010] EWCA Civ 137, where Hughes LJ said at [191]…
The Government is beginning the search for a new director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) thereby confirming Theresa May’s plan to scrap the white-collar crime authority has been abandoned.
Theresa May had vowed to scrap the SFO as part of plans to improve the UK’s handling of white collar crime if the Conservatives won the General Election in June this year. Following similar threats in 2011 and 2014 Theresa May had proposed to incorporate the SFO into the National Crime Agency (NCA) in an effort to improve intelligence sharing and bolster the investigation of serious fraud, money laundering and financial crime. This followed concerns that the SFO had struggled to prove its worth following botched cases including the Libor rate-fixing scandal and the prosecution of Vincent Tchenguiz…
On 4 October 2017 Newcastle United lost its case against HMRC in a landmark ruling concerning the lawfulness of search warrants and the effect of a judge’s failure to give reasons for issuing such warrants (Newcastle United Football Club and Others v HMRC [2017] EWHC 2404 (Admin)). HMRC had obtained search and seizure warrants as part of its investigation into what it suspected was a “systematic abuse” of the tax system by Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC). The club contended HMRC had no reasonable grounds to suspect tax fraud and complained of significant failings in the process by which the warrants were granted…
On November 5th 2015, Anthony Allen and Tom Conti, both previously employees of Rabobank, were convicted by a court in New York of wire fraud and bank fraud as a result of their conduct in manipulating the London Interbank Offer Rate (“LIBOR”). In the first appeal brought against a LIBOR conviction anywhere in the world, they appealed their convictions to the United States Court of Appeals on 5 grounds. This article deals with the issue relating to whether testimony obtained under compulsion of a foreign power may be used against that individual in a criminal case in the United States…
SUMMARY In 2017 a 24-year-old woman, Louella Fletcher Michie, died at the Bestival Music Festival,…
On 28 January 2016 the Sentencing Council published the new Definitive Guidelines for offences of…
