The trend in 2009 has been towards greater variety in kinds of forensic accountancy work. I have reported on cases of loss of profits and commission, loss of earnings resulting from personal injury, alleged embezzlement by accountants and a sub-postmaster, tax credits and DWP fraud, alleged frauds against a charity and a bank, alleged money laundering, and the usual staple of confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The Justice Minister has called for the current six-year time frame for calculating benefit from crime to be increased, possibly to 20 years. While this makes the right political noises and flexes Holyrood's muscle, it conveniently ignores the practical difficulties in obtaining the paperwork for making the calculation, particularly bank statements, and would therefore be unworkable. In practice, the further back in time, the less certainty over calculations of alleged benefit, and the greater the risk of injustice.
The English Court of Appeal found that a pension policy that had not matured was "available" when determining the amount of a confiscation order. However its value, and therefore the amount to be included in the same order, could not be assessed in advance of maturity (R v Chen CA (Crim Div) 04/12/09).