Tony McClements suggests we should take comfort from the changes afoot at Britain’s premier anti-fraud agency

For several years now I have been a critic of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

The SFO has presided over several failed high-profile prosecutions, caused by what I would consider to be schoolboy errors (the most embarrassing of which have involved fundamental mistakes under disclosure rules).

For some time, I have therefore been advocating that the SFO switches track, and brings in personnel with a background in policing, preferably career detectives with experience in the investigation of financial and organised crime.

As a former Fraud Squad detective, I have been forced to watch from the sidelines as the UK’s premier counter-fraud investigation and prosecution organisation lost its way. So much so, that I described the SFO as being in the last chance saloon, believing that either it faced being disbanded, or swallowed up by the National Crime Agency.

So, when former senior police officer Nick Ephgrave was appointed as the new director of the SFO last year, I welcomed his appointment. In a short space of time, he has asserted control over the organisation, and said all the right things and made all the right noises. But saying and doing are two totally different things.

His recruitment of Graham McNulty, another former senior police officer with a background in the investigation of financial crime, is a major coup. I don’t know Mr McNulty, but I am aware that he comes with an impeccable reputation.

As the SFO evolution continues, I would like to see more recruits from the rank and file of those who investigate financial crime. Installing new figureheads is a must for the credibility of the SFO, but it needs to draw upon those ranks that work at the coalface, such as detective constables and detective sergeants.

It will be those with the hands-on expertise, allied to the existing SFO staff, who will make the real difference. I have been clear that the existing SFO teams are extremely competent and good at what they do, but they have been failed by their past leadership. This is why the SFO needs evolution and not revolution.

So: the SFO is moving in the right direction. Those with a background working at the sharp end of fraud investigation will ensure that there are fewer “dead horse” cases for the SFO to flog, and realistic targeting of the right cases will become the norm. The SFO must stop simply investigating those cases that have an element of political intrigue.

I am heartened by the way the SFO is slowly taking shape and would simply suggest that the merging of the old guard with the new should continue as that is what will ultimately save it from itself.

Tony McClements is Head of Investigations at Martin Kenney & Co (MKS), an international asset recovery litigation practice based in the British Virgin Islands.