Fraud Intelligence

Gavin McFarlane • Dechert and London Guildhall University

Can a company director be held liable for theft from his firm? That he can was upheld in the recent judgment in R (On the Application of R) v Snaresbrook Crown Court.

The fundamental and long-established duty of applicants for without notice relief is that they must act with the utmost good faith and disclose their case fully and frankly when the application is made. In this article, Laurence Katz of Holman Fenwick and Willan examines the duties of applicants for such relief and looks at some of the pitfalls to be avoided in obtaining without notice orders.

UK courts are increasingly unwilling to allow the legal medium of the company to be used as a block to tracing and restoring the proceeds of commercial wrongdoing.

The UK authorities are currently grappling with difficult questions concerning the definition, prosecution and regulatory treatment of fraud. With 15 years’ experience of investigating fraud, Tony Waters , a former Detective Sergeant who has served in the Commercial Fraud Squads of both the West Midlands Police and the City of London Police, is well-placed to give a personal perspective on some of the issues. Mr Waters is currently the joint head of the investigations division of Berkeley Security Bureau in London. He joined BSB in December 2000 from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) where he had been on secondment from the City of London Police for the previous nine years.

Bob Scott CFE is a partner in the Finance Law team of Hammond Suddards Edge, specialising in fraud prevention and asset recovery. He is also a Certified Fraud Examiner and sits on the Executive Committee of the UK Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He can be contacted at bob.scott@hammondse.com.

UK counterfeit card fraud rose 50 per cent to UK£138 million over the last 12 months according to APACS, the Association for Payment Clearing Services. Total card fraud on UK-issued cards grew by 32 per cent to UK£373.7 million in the year..

The UK signed up to the OECD Anti Bribery Convention in 1997, ratified the agreement in December 1998 and it entered into force in February 1999, but until 11 September this year, the Government had proved less than enthusiastic about its..

In the last Fraud Intelligence, Keith Nuthall reviewed OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud office’s own report on its operations. This month we are able to provide perhaps a more independent perspective following the release of the European Court of Auditors annual report for the financial year 2000 (available at www.eca.eu.int). It reveals gaping accounting black holes in the Euros 92.8 billion EU budget and serious problems at OLAF. Timon Molloy reports.