Private Prosecution In Jersey – The Way Forward?

It has been reported in the United Kingdom that public resources are so stretched that police officers have attended the scenes of crime by bus. There have been repeated press reports of the reductions in the number of investigating police offices. There have been suggestions that police forces should be sponsored by commercial organizations.

Within that context it is unsurprising that in the United Kingdom it appears that there is no expertise, no will and no resources to deal with certain crimes.

Those crimes are frequently financial crimes, where the sheer volumes of paper and electronic material, and the layers of complexity can seem overwhelming to all bar the most battle hardened investigatory fraud lawyers. Why would public sector decision makers set any store on tackling such cases in circumstances where there are continuing cuts to the resources necessary to do the job even to a minimum acceptable standard? Fraud is a low priority and public attention is focused elsewhere. The United Kingdom limps today towards deferred prosecution agreements as it tries to gain some grip on this difficult topic.

In Jersey, the picture has until comparatively recently been something quite different. The Jersey Law enforcement agencies did a remarkable job a decade or so ago in changing the perception of the informed international observer as to the island's approach to serious international crime. The Law Officer's Department was proactive and well ahead of the curve in taking action against financial crime and money laundering including such crimes bred of political corruption overseas and crime against foreign exchequers. Many millions of pounds were confiscated as a result of such prosecutions; it is no exaggeration to say that during the period in question Jersey was a world leader in tackling complex financial crime, including crime with highly visible international components, and on occasion in circumstances in which the Serious Fraud Office declined to act.

Performance at this level was seen to be indispensable to the Island's international standing and consequently to the well-being of the financial services industry. Without such criminal justice activity there is the spectre of the Island's return to international community black lists with the resulting deleterious effect on the industry. To put it no higher, without visible application of the rule of law in the area of financial crime it becomes more difficult properly to describe the...