Blog
Private prosecutions – A route to justice for the charity sector
Sophie Tang
26 March 2021
Sentencing environmental offences: Reflections on the Thames Water £2.3m fine
Jonathan Grimes, Partner, and Sophie Wood, Senior Associate, in our Criminal Litigation team write for LexisNexis discussing the £2.3m fine imposed on Thames Water by the Environment Agency (EA) after causing a stream pollution and consider what factors criminal courts take into account when assessing the amount of the fine.
19 March 2021
Youth Justice: Is reform on the way for young people who turn 18 while in the criminal justice system?
Children under 18 years old are afforded a number of special protections by virtue of the fact that they are children in the eyes of the law. These protections fall away when an individual turns 18 and they are legally considered an ‘adult’. For defendants who cross the threshold into adulthood during the criminal process, the impact of reaching this milestone can be profound.
4 March 2021
The risks and penalties of money laundering for charities and how to guard against it
Money launderers will look for any opportunity to take advantage of organisations with weak financial controls in order to launder their ill-gotten gains. Charities, trustees, employees and volunteers who knowingly or unwittingly assist money launderers, or who fail to report suspicions, may commit a criminal offence and find themselves liable to prosecution.
3 March 2021
COVID-19 Fraud: New Taxpayer Protection Taskforce
In the Budget 2021, presented to Parliament on 3 March, the Chancellor announced that HMRC will establish a taskforce to investigate those who have fraudulently made use of government schemes set up to protect individuals and businesses against the economic impact of COVID-19 – such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) (widely referred to as the Furlough scheme) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
1 March 2021
Thames Water fined for “entirely foreseeable” pollution
Thames Water was sentenced on Friday 26 February 2021 to a fine of £2.3m and ordered to pay costs of almost £90,000. The case is noteworthy both because of the level of the fine imposed and because the Environment Agency (“EA”) uses criminal prosecutions as a means of enforcement relatively rarely.
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