Overview Of Lost Your Life Savings Due To Fraud
Have you lost your life savings due to fraud? What should you do and why can it be difficult?
Alex Murdaugh said under cross examination at the Trial in which he was convicted of the Murdaugh Murders and admitted to stealing money from his firm’s clients said:
Oh what a tangled web we weave…
When it comes to recovery of the ill-gotten fruits of fraud from fraudsters in the UK, what a tangled web we might have to navigate. We have a plethora of complications, civil v criminal issues, jurisdiction, costs, motivation and the investigation process itself.
Investigating Fraud
When investigating fraud there are the three P’s: persistence, pressure and patience. The investigation of fraud can be a slow, time consuming and expensive process.
Many fraudsters deceive their victims for long periods with a tangled web of deceit and many never make admissions. As a result, the burden is on the victim to prove the fraud.
The victim may have to obtain the evidence to prove the fraud. The problem is that fraud is often not just about the effects of what has happened but also the state of mind of the person accused of committing a fraud when it is judged objectively. The typical feature of fraud is highlighted in the Fraud Act 2006 which comprises:
- Dishonesty
- Gain
- Loss
Although dishonesty can be inferred through conduct this can be a high barrier to reach.
In effect a fraud might be perpetrated such as causing someone to lose their life savings when a fraudster misleads someone and hoovers up such funds for themselves thereby causing the victim loss.
UK Structure To Fight Fraud
There is plenty of legislation available to fight fraud which has been in place for many years such as the Theft Act 1968.
Furthermore, new legislation is coming out such as the proposed amendment to the Economic Crime and Transparency Bill in the form of a new corporate offence of failing to prevent fraud. However, is likely to only go so far. It is likely such an amendment would impact on perhaps mainly larger organisations, many of whom may well already have procedures to prevent fraud in place.
Money Laundering Regulations may make it harder to find professional advice but if as politicians suggest as Lord Faulks whilst debating the Economic Crime And Corporate Transparency Bill:
For far too long we have allowed this country to be a laundromat for dirty money.
then there is a risk that the fraudster is in a stronger position than the pursuer.
It cannot be right that the balance might be in favour of the alleged fraudster.
Legislation is all well and good but if it is not actively deployed with alacrity then it may be of limited effect due to a lack of enforcement.
Nobody can realistically promise to get you your life savings back. Anybody that suggests otherwise might be put to the test and invited to swap places with you for a substantial discount. If someone is so confident that they can get your money back then perhaps see how quickly they might embrace such an opportunity.
Resourced Deployed To Fight Economic Crime
The damage done by economic crime was highlighted in a Parliamentary debate in which Yvette Cooper on 7 March 2022 said:
We want to see stronger action against economic crime that puts us to shame and undermines our economy and the rule of law.
According to the Think Tank Social Market Foundation’s article Fraud is now Britain’s dominant crime, but policing has failed to keep up:
Despite the growth of fraud, and its cost to society, very limited police resource is dedicated to tackling the problem. According to official statistics on the police workforce in England and Wales, just 1,753 officers and staff in 2021 were primarily focused on economic crimes such as fraud – amounting to just 0.8% of the total police workforce. This proportion has seen very little movement in recent years, despite the surge in such crime that has taken place.
Why Is Fraud Hard To Pursue?
If you want to pursue the matter provision of proof is crucial. Proof is not assertion. Proof is evidence the demonstrates the fraud has arisen in the first place. Without it the authorities will struggle to take a case forward. Without it the authorities may be unwilling to even open an investigation. If there are a substantial number of victims all saying the same fraud has happened to them may encourage the authorities to open a case.
So if reporting to Action Fraud may not be enough then what options might be available?
The civil route to recovery may warrant further exploration. A fraudster detained in one of His Majesty’s Pleasure places does not get victims money back. A recent Freedom of Information request shows that compensation orders involving Director Disqualifcation may not be so extensively utilised.
It is perhaps inevitable that if you have lost your life savings due to a fraud you may not have much left to fund pursuit of such matters and this is one of the reasons so many fraudsters can be difficult to recover money from. If the fraudster company goes into Liquidation or the fraudulent individual goes into Bankruptcy without money available to fund an investigation the investigations undertaken may not be sufficient to progress matters to pursue recovery actions against the fraudsters.
Fraudsters Fleeing The Jurisdiction
A fraudster who is prepared to liquidate their assets and leave the UK jurisdiction will typically be harder to trace and costly to pursue.
According to the Mirror in its article Road rage killer Kenny Noye, 74, ‘puts his £1.6million Spanish hideaway up for sale’ it took the UK authorities a long time to track down Kenneth Noye when he is reported to have fled to Spain “after a two-year international manhunt”. That same article referred to Noye as “Britain’s most wanted man” so if that makes uncomfortable reading, that (as reported) Britain’s then most wanted man managed to evade the authorities for two years just imagine the position when asking the authorities to incur expenditure in the pursuit of a fraudster positioned overseas.
However, many fraudsters do not pack their bags and take flight. Many have a settled lives in the UK with families they may want to see, school runs that may need running and they may fancy their chances no matter how egregious their conduct may or may not have been. They after all hold the money they may have obtained from ill-gotten gains that might be capable of being deployed to contest the allegations of fraud they face.
Solutions To Fraud Fighting
A solution is not about tinkering with the presumption of innocence but about accelerating the investigation process and access to information so that frauds can be investigated.
Legislation that protects privacy such as data protection may slow down and could potentially hamper civil investigation techniques.
Until there is a system whereby information is required to be rapidly provided upon the opening of a fraud investigation and with such matters having the priority to adequately share in the resources deployed by the authorities, then it might be feared that many more people could lose their life savings unfortunately and have limited options when seeking redress.
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Disclaimer: Lost Your Life Savings Due To Fraud? Such A Tangled Web?
This page is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. This article Lost Your Life Savings Due To Fraud? Such A Tangled Web? is provided for information purposes only. You can contact us on the specific facts of your case to obtain relevant advice via a Free Initial Consultation.
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