Boiled dry

Richard Alderman, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, has pledged to protect vulnerable consumers in the UK from fraud [1], with a special emphasis on targeting ever-increasing boiler-room scams. But how will he do this? David McCluskey and Ruth Lane of Peters & Peters discuss potential problems in recovering victims’ funds.

David McCluskey (tel: +44 (0) 207 822 7750, email: dmccluskey@petersandpeters.com) is a Partner in the Fraud & Regulatory department and Ruth Lane is an Associate in the Civil Fraud and Commercial Litigation department at Peters & Peters in London (www.petersandpeters.com).

Scale of the problem

Fraud is estimated to cost the nation UK£14 billion a year [2] of which UK£500 million is said to be lost to organised boiler room operations [3]. Although many varieties of the scam exist, they share many features and principally involve the sale of non-existent or nearly worthless shares at grossly inflated prices, by a combination of deception and high pressure sales tactics.