The pilot spearheaded by City of London police will pass information about suspected cybercriminals gathered by police officers onto law firms, which will then use civil courts to seize any funds involved and suspects’ assets. An experiment in public-private collaboration in law enforcement, the pilot is the first of its kind and comes at a time when fraud has overwhelmed the criminal justice system and is costing the UK an estimated £193bn per year. ‘It is a huge shift… Civil recovery allows us to get hold of a criminal’s money sooner, and repay back victims sooner,’ commented City of London police head of economic crime Commander Chris Greany.

Mishcon de Reya joins the ranks

Already signed up to play a lead role in the new initiative is Mishcon de Reya’s civil fraud practice. Mishcon lawyers will taking point on the two-year pilot program, which may then be extended to other firms if found to be successful and effective. ‘I think it’s a good thing and very necessary… The police simply do not have the capacity to pursue all of those cases, and something has to give,’ commented civil fraud partner Robert Wynn Jones of the firm’s partnership with the police.

Ethical concerns

However, the prospect of lawyers assisting the police and strip assets on a for-profit basis has not been met with equal enthusiasm by all commentators. ‘We’ve seen privatization in this context in other ways, for example prison privitisation. We all know how badly that’s gone wrong…’ commented Bindmans lawyer Katie Wheatley to Legal Cheek. 'Having possibly life savings, large assets stripped from you is a life-changing event. Whereas for the companies that the role was subcontracted to, it would be just a job,' she added. 

Sources: The Guardian; Legal Cheek; Legal Week