Is everybody happy?

Gavin McFarlane of Dechert and London Guildhall University

Over the last couple of years Fraud Intelligence has been following the saga of complaints about the declining effectiveness of Customs and Excise investigation and prosecution functions in fraud cases. In recent months we have been pressing for publication of the report that was to follow the inquiry, set up at the request of the Attorney General, by John Gower QC, the retired circuit judge, and Sir Anthony Hammond. This followed an earlier report at the start of 2000 by another retired judge, Gerald Butler QC into why high profile prosecutions for drug trafficking were collapsing so frequently. It was Butler who originally recommended a review of the prosecution power of Customs to examine whether they should be transferred to another authority such as the Crown Prosecution Service or the Serious Fraud Office.