Edmonds Marshall McMahon is featured in The Times Business section today in relation to the article ‘Lawyers join fight against fraud’.
Edmonds Marshall McMahon, together with Mischon de Reya are taking part in a two year scheme, financed by the Home Office police innovation fund, whereby private firms will tackle some asset recovery fraud cases on behalf of the City of London Police in an attempt to seize more money back from fraudsters.
This will be the first time that fraudsters will be hit with criminal investigations and civil asset recovery measures, following a tacit admission by law enforcement agencies that they need urgent help to combat the 3.2 million fraud cases being referred to them every year. The private firms assisting City of London Police under the scheme will be deployed to use their expertise to seize back more money. They will speak to victims and use civil routes to claim back defrauded money and will allow City of London Police to focus on investigations and prosecutions.
Superintendent Maria Woodall, City of London’s operation lead for the pilot was quoted saying “this innovative new scheme will hopefully allow us to be more flexible and creative in how we identify and seize criminal assets in certain cases to get those funds back to the victims of crime and out of the hands of criminals. We’re looking to use the private sector’s ability to take back these assets using civil legislation whilst freeing up time for our officers to concentrate on building criminal cases against those individuals and groups”
Edmonds Marshall McMahon is delighted to be involved in this partnership and is excited to be working with other law enforcement agencies to recoup fraudulent monies for both victims and the state.