The National Crime Agency (“NCA”) estimates that many hundreds of £billions of corrupt money flows through London each year. At the same time, although thousands of individuals are prosecuted and convicted of acquisitive criminal offences where confiscation orders are made, in 2016/17 only £162 million was collected and some £1.9 billion remains outstanding and unpaid despite lengthy default terms of imprisonment being imposed.  Richard Fisher QC and Liam Walker consider the implementation of Unexplained Wealth Orders, introduced at the end of January 2018.

As we await the outcome of the appeal against the decision of Mrs Justice Andrews in SFO v ENRC (to be heard in June), the case of Bilta (UK) Lts v Royal Bank of Scotland Plc seems to be more alive to the realities of the dialogue between corporates and government agencies. We are delighted to welcome a new member of our Business Crime & Investigations Team, Peter Caldwell, who looks at how the case considers the issue of dominant purpose for the operation of litigation privilege.

David Hislop QC assesses the recent Court of Appeal decision in R v Reynolds & Farnish [2017] EWCA Crim 1455 which considered the sometimes difficult problem in confiscation proceedings of valuing the benefit to a defendant of criminal proceeds for the purposes of the making of a confiscation order.

Abigail Bright looks at the draft Sentencing Code consultation, a current project of the Law Commission, and in particular the effect its implementation may have on businesses.  By way of illustration, she references the response of the Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council, to which she contributed.