Corporate Sentencing

The Sentencing Council last month published a Guideline for sentencing in fraud, bribery and money laundering offences committed by corporate offenders. It is said to be effective from 1 October 2014, but will no doubt be referred to in the mean time if any large corporates are successfully prosecuted because, as Lord Justice Treacy has pointed out, there have been very few prosecutions of corporations, and certainly not enough to form the basis of a recognisable tariff system. Treacy LJ also makes the point that the guideline was created 'as part of a package to support the introduction of Deferred Prosecution Agreements', while curiously at the same time not being part of the DPA Guidelines. Make of that what you will, but one can be fairly sure that the guideline will be used by both sides in submissions about sentence during the course of DPA negotiations.

Fixing the level of financial penalties for trading corporations in criminal cases is not rocket science. It is easy enough to compile a list of...