Blog
Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
8 September 2015
Security company directors ordered to pay large sum in private prosecution
On 1 September 2015, as a result of a private prosecution which we brought on behalf of the Security Industry Authority (SIA) in partnership with the London Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART), two security company directors were ordered to pay a total of £666,697 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA).
20 August 2015
The PSA - radically "Rethinking Regulation"
The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) has declared that regulation requires a “radical overhaul” in order to meet proposed changes to health and care services in the UK. In a report entitled Rethinking Regulation, published on 6 August 2015, the PSA sets out its proposal to “reshape” how regulation works.
19 August 2015
Scottish private prosecutions back in the spotlight
The Fatal Accident Inquiry convened to hear evidence in relation to the tragic events in Glasgow’s Queen Street on 22 December last year has once again raised the issue of the availability of private prosecutions in Scotland.
12 August 2015
Case Update: Barrister’s appeal against dishonesty finding dismissed after barrister drafted false Grounds of Appeal
14 May 2015
Sukul v Bar Standards Board [2015] EWHC 2338 (Admin)
The original complaint against Mr Sukul (‘S’) originated from Master Egan QC, the Registrar of the Criminal Appeals, to the Bar Standards Board on 31 October 2012. This was after a hearing before Master Egan QC on 19 October 2012 in order to consider S’s failure to respond to the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division (‘CACD’) invitation to draft perfected grounds of appeal and an accompanying advice. It was at this hearing before the Master that S admitted that he had no professional locus in the matters for many months, and that he had made it clear to his solicitors that there were no viable grounds for appeal. He stated that his solicitor had asked him to draft “holding grounds” and that he never intended those grounds to be filed but that he had meant to help his instructing solicitor who wanted to continue their relationship with the lay client who was at the time charged with murder. During the hearing, S stated that: “I helped my solicitors because they wanted to continue to work with Mr L for perhaps pure economic reasons. That is why, and I helped out because I wanted to continue to work.”
12 August 2015
Financial constraints on SFO will lead to increase in private prosecutions
The number of raids carried out by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has halved in the last year according to information taken from a Freedom of Information request by a city law firm. The SFO conducted 13 raids as part of its investigations in 2014/2015 compared to 26 such raids in 2013/2014. This fall does not necessarily mean that white collar crime rates are falling, but that the SFO may have limited resources to fully investigate cases of wrongdoing by both businesses and individuals. In addition, the SFO 2014-2015 Annual Report cites a proposed reduction in spending from £69.1 million to £45.1 million in 2015-2016, again highlighting a stretch on resources and the real possibility that cases worthy of prosecution will not be investigated.
