Fraud can be committed in a number of different ways:

  • abuse of position, or
  • false representation, or
  • prejudicing someone’s rights for personal gain.

Fraud is any deception intended for personal gain or to cause a loss to another party and can include:

  • deception whereby someone knowingly makes false representation or they fail to disclose information or
  • they abuse a position.

Fraud is one of those areas that is relatively simple to state, certainly for an experienced fraud lawyer, but in large fraud investigations the real hard work is in the facts. We often need experience of accountancy, computers including programming and use of software, analysis of telephone records, good knowledge of the workings of HMR&C and various fraud departments of financial institutions and police areas.

The main investigators and prosecutors of large and/or complex frauds include:

  • The Serious Fraud Office
  • Department of Business, Innovation and Skills
  • City of London Police
  • Financial Services Authority
  • Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
  • The Home Office
  • The Insolvency Service
  • Metropolitan Police Service
  • National Fraud Authority
  • Office of Fair Trading
  • Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office
  • Serious Organised Crime Agency
  • Department of Work and Pensions

This is not a complete list. We have certainly dealt with very large and complex frauds that were prosecuted by others. Nowadays the Crown Prosecution Service is expected to take on more of the prosecutions.

To list the different types of fraud would take up too much space. However, an excellent way to view these is found on the SFO’swebsite or even on the CrimeStoppers site. Seems to be no point listing them here when the Government has done such a good job of sorting them out for us.
Clarke Kiernan LLP, Criminal Law Solicitors,
1 Lamberts Yard, Tonbridge, TN9 1ER
Phone: 01732 360999, Fax: 01732 353835, EMAIL, Map