Fraud Newsletter 4 – February 2017

CASES

Nothing of moment                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

SENTENCING AND CONFISCATION

Nothing of moment 

BILLS, STATUTES & STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

Criminal Finances Bill: 

Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act 2010 (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2017 (SI 2017/157) comes into force on 8 March 2017. Principal changes:

• Alters the definition of “designated person” in Art. 4(3) to include:
  • persons designated by the Treasury under Part 1 of the Act as it applies in UK;
  • persons designated by the Council of the European Union under article 2(3) of Council Regulation (EC) 2580/2001 of 27 Dec 01;
  • persons designated by the Governor of an Overseas Territory following consultation with the Sec. of State.
• Governors to consult the Treasury or the Secretary of State before granting, varying or revoking a licence in respect of the persons to which the order extends (article 4(8)).

CONSULTATIONS, GUIDANCE, CIRCULARS AND REPORTS

Review of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division):   Review by Thomas LJ on CA (Crim). Principal points are:

• increased use of technology to meet work load challenges;
• social media risks to fairness of trials. Posting of abusive and prejudicial material risk imprisonment and contempt proceedings: see in R (on the application of the BBC) v. F and D [2016] EWCA Crim 12;
• Single CA (Crim) judge can give leave on a limited basis. R v Hyde and Others [2016] EWCA Crim 1031;
• Grounds of Appeal are still over lengthy: see in R v James [2016] EWCA Crim 1639, (Westlaw);
• Significant increase in A-G appeals against sentence.

Corporate Criminal Liability:  MoJ  Call for Evidence re Corporate Liability for Economic Crime.

National Audit Office (NAO) Fraud Report re DFID: NAO report on the Department for International Development’s (DFID) funding to countries which present real challenges in terms of fraud and corruption: 9 Feb 2017.

NEWS

Brexit: United Kingdom’s exit from and a new partnership with the European Union Chapter 11 page 61 sets out HMG’s intentions to cooperate in the fight against crime (and terrorism) post-Brexit.