Investigation process

Unravelling major fraud involves examining vast quantities of documents often left in a deliberately obscure and fragmented form. The documents need to be examined by people with different types of expertise (e.g. police, accountants, lawyers, bankers, stockbrokers and computer specialists) to determine whether offences have been committed and if they have, to arrange the evidence in a compact and coherent form for presentation to the court.

Case meetings involving all members of the case team are held at regular intervals throughout the investigation. They provide a forum for agreeing joint lines of action and involve all the different specialists in the team, including independent prosecuting counsel, who are usually engaged at an early stage. At the end of each trial a final meeting is held to review the case and learn from the experience gained.

Deciding whether to prosecute

Once the case has been investigated, we will, before instituting any criminal proceedings, consider whether on the evidence against each potential defendant there is a realistic prospect of securing a conviction and whether the public interest requires a prosecution. We follow the principles outlined in the Code for Crown Prosecutors, which also applies to CPS decisions whether to prosecute.