Measures proposed to target fraud and provide greater justice for victims
A committee of MPs called for the government to help introduce specialised economic crime courts in order to counteract an “epidemic” of fraud cases in the legal system.
The House of Commons Justice Committee have announced its plans to tackle fraud, including a pilot scheme of specialised courts which target fraud cases.
The committee also called for the introduction of a new offence specifically for the failure to prevent fraud.
These measures could form amendments to the Economic Crime and Transparency Bill.
The committee said there were:
“compelling proposals for dedicated economic crime courts to ensure there are judges with the right skills to oversee what can often be lengthy and sometimes complex cases.
The committee also commented on the rise of digital evidence involved in cases, as it stated:
Our inquiry repeatedly heard that the existing legislation on disclosure was created at a time when the current volume of evidence submitted for cases could not have been envisaged.
The attorney general should review the current disclosure guidelines and consider whether there is merit in introducing specific guidance on disclosure in fraud cases with large quantities of digital material.”
The report also asked for their to be more legal aid funding to ensure cases are not delayed.
“A key barrier to this engagement has been the lack of legal aid funding, and so we welcome the government’s recent commitments in relation to ensuring this early engagement is incentivised through the legal aid schemes.”
In addition to this, the committee suggests that sentences for fraud be based on the impact on the victim, in contrast to current sentencing guidelines which focus on the monetary value of the crimes.
The committee referenced the introduction of the Bribery Act, which they deemed a success and suggested similar measures for fraudulent crimes.
They suggested:
“A similar offence for failure to prevent fraud being perpetrated using a company’s platforms would not only aid prosecution for these failures but focus private sector effort on designing fraud out of companies’ systems.
A failure to prevent fraud offence should be introduced to hold companies to account for fraud occurring on their systems and encourage better corporate behaviours.”
