Forensic accounting is the application of accounting and financial analysis to legal investigations. A forensic accountant, for the most part, is essential to analysing and interpreting financial information in order to be able to investigative and summarise their findings.
This is necessary, as in order to argue successfully in financial cases, the legal team must have an in-depth knowledge of the financial complexities. For example, within fraud cases It is imperative that a legal team has a full understanding of the accounting evidence in order to be able to dispute and present to the judge and jury.
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How can our forensic accountants assist the defence?
This extensive knowledge can be supplied by our Forensic Equity Accountancy team, our accountants are highly qualified in this field with several years of experience. They can provide a comprehensive and unique assessment of the prosecution’s accounting evidence. This would include assessing the soundness of the prosecution’s evidence and in some cases, providing alternative explanations for the claims made by the prosecution.
After an initial review of the case, we will provide a clear response as to the issues that would need to be addressed, the workload necessary and any further disclosures needed. If, for any reason we believe our services to be unsuitable in a case, we would find you alternative routes to take.
Our forensic accountants can:
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Review POCA Evaluations
Our experts are experienced in defending financial crime cases involving:
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VAT fraud
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Carousel fraud
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Theft
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Wrongful trading
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Mortgage fraud
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Long firm fraud (MTIC)
Financial Crime
Financial Crime cases against the defence are often based on a selection of specific financial and accounting transactions.
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It is our role to understand in detail such transactions and the wider financial picture as this is integral to undermining the prosecution’s case.
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Our forensic accountants can:
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Analyse the financial information provided
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Assess the accuracy and completeness of the prosecution’s evidence
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Assess whether any further evidence can be obtained to assist the defence.
Proceeds of Crime Confiscation
It is very likely that a person who has financially benefited from their criminal activities will be subject to a confiscation order.
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The purpose of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA), is to deprive defendants of the financial benefits gained, and to return this benefit to public funds.
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Under this confiscation order, if the court decided that the defendants has lead a criminal lifestyle, then it can assume that any income obtained will have been through criminal means and thus a confiscation is warranted.
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In such cases, it is often down to the defendant to prove otherwise, however, regularly the prosecution’s case is based on vague assumptions and lacks substantive evidence. Therefore, it is imperative that their allegations are disputed, despite not always knowing the source of income immediately. The prosecution can often double count in their results, they often include legitimate monies, and have been known to seek to confiscate excessive amounts, which can be disproportionate to the amounts originally obtained by the defendant.
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Another issue is that the prosecution often claim that a defendant has hidden financial benefits as to not pay it back, thus a defendant’s assets are often assessed as being significantly higher than those available for confiscation.
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How can our forensic accountants assist the defence?
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This is where our forensic accountants can assist, by providing evidence which proves that the prosecutions claims are excessive and unfair.
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Our forensic accountants can:
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Understand the rules of POCA, analysing and unpicking complicated sets of data.
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We are able to link the flow of monies between various accounts and thus prove their source.
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Checking receipts and expenditure to source documentation and identifying transactions that arise legitimately.