Anoushka Warlow, partner at BCL, discusses with Law360, about the evidential weight of admissions in deferred prosecution agreements, as the SFO seeks to enforce its DPA with Guralp Systems Ltd.
Following the High Court’s decision allowing the SFO to pursue breach proceedings, Anoushka noted that the strongest evidence now available to prosecutors may be the admissions contained in the DPA’s statement of facts. Such admissions, she said, can be treated as evidence under section 10 of the Criminal Justice Act.
However, she cautioned that the weight to be attached to those admissions remains an open question, particularly where they were made at an early stage of an investigation and for the purpose of securing a DPA rather than following a fully contested trial.
“It will be interesting to see how much weight might be given to such admissions in circumstances where they were made at an early stage in the investigation, prior to the detailed analysis undertaken as part of the trial process, and for the purpose of obtaining a DPA,” Anoushka said.
To read the full article click here.
More like this
Independent Review of Disclosure and Fraud Offences
In May 2023, the government published the Fraud Strategy, which committed the government to launch an independent review into the operation of the disclosure regime in a digital age and