BCL partner, Richard Sallybanks has been quoted in The Times discussing the SFO’s decision to outsource the disclosure process in the prosecution of G4S after an eight-year investigation into the private security company and the use of third party suppliers to assist with large investigations.

Here is a short extract from the article*. If you wish to read the full article, please visit The Times website.

”The senior fraud buster for the UK spends most of her time jumping from one frying pan to another. Only a few weeks ago Lisa Osofsky, the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), had a rough ride from MPs on the justice committee as they grilled her over the continuing review into the agency’s recent prosecution failures.

Suella Braverman QC, the attorney-general, ordered the probe and it is being led by David Calvert-Smith, a former director of public prosecutions and a High Court judge, who is expected to report soon.

However, last week the latest frying pan sizzled over a report that the SFO was to outsource the disclosure process in the prosecution of G4S after an eight-year investigation into the private security company.

The agency, it was reported in the Financial Times, struck a deal with Anexsys, an e-disclosure and data discovery specialist, to take the pressure off its staff. After all, it was the quashing of a conviction in the renowned Unaoil corruption case — on the grounds of disclosure failures — that triggered the Calvert- Smith review.

...More widely, Richard Sallybanks, a partner at BCL Solicitors, warns that having been granted an adjournment to deal with disclosure in the G4S case, “the SFO must now recognise that it is in the last chance saloon in terms of getting disclosure right”.

Sallybanks also highlights the agency’s historic use of third-party suppliers — including forensic accountants as well as junior barristers — to assist with large investigations. In addition, he says that there would be “support for the use of external suppliers if it helps the SFO to get disclosure right”.”

*This article was first published by The Times on 05 May 2022. If you wish to read the full article, please visit The Times website.

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