Director, Richard Alderman, in his letter to the Attorney General on the SFO's progress in the year 2009-10, reported that the SFO case-load averaged 86 last year. When he was appointed it was working on 65 cases. During the year 13 cases (involving around £33.5 million of victims' losses) were taken to trial. In this, his second annual report, 91% of defendants were convicted. When he joined as Director the figure was 61%.
"Important though the conviction rate is as a measure of success, it is only one indicator of our effectiveness," said Richard Alderman. "I have always wanted the SFO to keep the victims of economic crime in mind in every aspect of what we do. In the cases we bring to court we seek to deter fraudsters by prosecuting those who live off hard working or vulnerable people. Where justified, we want to see them sent to prison and we aim to confiscate the proceeds of their crimes and compensate their victims and, where appropriate, get them debarred from running companies."
The overall improvement happened in a year when our core funding was cut by a fifth.
A dedicated unit has been created to use the Proceeds of Crime Act to deny fraudsters the benefits of their crimes and return money to victims. As a result there has been a dramatic increase in the amount and value of orders granted by the courts under Proceeds of Crime. For example, confiscation orders targeted at fraudsters' assets more than doubled from 12 in 2008-09 to 28 in 2009-10, with the amounts involved trebling to £2.6 million. Production orders - requiring banks to produce information about people's financial dealings - leapt from just four to 63 within a single year, providing vital information to help the SFO trace fraudulent assets. In one example the SFO secured a single confiscation order for nearly £1.5 million, including £59,000 earmarked for a 69-year-old victim suffering from cancer. In the past year the SFO has appointed Witness Care Officers to help witnesses through the court process, keeping both them and victims informed.
Although the SFO is dealing with more cases and achieving better results, Chief Executive, Phillippa Williamson acknowledges that fraud is a constant challenge. "At any one time we are investigating economic crime with a value of round £6 billion. We have stepped up our public awareness campaigning to alert the public to the dangers, using the internet to make people aware of the tactics fraudsters use against them".
