Role and Responsibilities of the Serious Fraud Office in Fighting Fraud Within the United Kingdom (From Annual Report for 2004 and Resource Material Series No. 66, P 91-98, 2005, Simon Cornell, ed. -- See NCJ-213348)

• NCJ Number: 213351
• Author(s): Peter Kiernan
• Date Published: September 2005
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: Japan

Annotation

After presenting background information on the creation of the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), this report describes its functions of detection, investigation, and prosecution of serious fraud.

Abstract

The creation of the SFO by statute followed the recommendation of the Fraud Trials Committee, which determined that there was a general lack of confidence among the citizenry that the legal system in England and Wales was capable of bringing the perpetrators of serious fraud efficiently and effectively to justice. In the 16 years of the SFO's existence it has built a reputation for the quality of its investigations and prosecutions as well as the innovations it has brought to the management of fraud cases. With a limited budget and a relatively small staff of approximately 240 members, the SFO selects only cases that require the expertise it offers. Some criteria for its case selection are frauds that involved at least one million pounds, that receive national publicity and widespread public concern, that require specialized investigative knowledge, that have an international dimension, and that are particularly complex. A recent significant development is the SFO's new computer system, which allows using one set of information technology tools from the beginning to the end of a case.