Regulatory Offences

In recent years the number of regulators has increased and their powers have grown considerably. Reliance on risk-based regulation has probably reached its high water mark as public pressure for harsher action grows in the wake of the financial crisis. Consequently, the regulatory agencies are flexing their muscles.

The Financial Services Authority is gaining new powers and additional funding, doubling the resource allocated to insider trading. In March the courts handed out Britain’s first prison sentence for insider dealing. In 2008 the Office of Fair Trading obtained its first convictions for bid rigging, sending three executives to prison and barring them from directorships for periods of five to seven years.

Meanwhile the law keeps getting tougher with new offences such as corporate manslaughter committed by companies. The power to prosecute a company does not cut the risk to the individual director or employee but creates a ripe strategic environment for police in pursuit of a suitable corporate defendant to arrest senior staff and wring them dry in the police station. Once that is done, both will be defendants. On 17^th June this year Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd appeared in court charged with corporate manslaughter alongside its sole director Peter Eaton who is charged with gross negligence manslaughter. If the prosecution win this case, future cases are likely to repeat this pincer movement taking company and directors down together.

Hickman and Rose solicitors have huge experience of advising people in the police station environment and unerring tactical skill. We aim to minimise the risk to both companies and individuals in all areas of regulatory enforcement.