A happy ending

This one ran and ran (from December 2005 to September 2007). The Respondent was arrested with some cannabis that he bought for himself and friends. His conviction was accompanied by a Statement of Information alleging benefit from criminal conduct of just under £220,000, a fairly standard start to proceedings. Crown methodology allows a lot of scope for human error, and its forensic accountant took advantage of this to understate the calculation of alleged benefit by around £54,500. The mistake, totally missed by the Crown in its 21 months of forensic accounting examination of the figures, was made by substituting the bank interest received figure (6 pence) for two year's bank withdrawals totalling around £54,500. The eventual settlement was on a figure of around £30,000, which in this case probably was a fairly accurate measure of benefit from crime (but not the crime for which the Respondent was convicted).