The first Young Fraud Lawyers’ Association (YFLA) educational of the 25/26 membership year –  An Inquiry into (Anti-)Fraud – sponsored by Boethius Translations, was held on 22nd January at the Library Room of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Wales. 

The event took the form of a panel discussion between Sir Peter Gross, a retired judge of the Court of Appeal; Olga Tocewicz, a criminal litigator from Hogan Lovells;  and Jeremy Brier KC, a barrister specialising in commercial litigation from Essex Court Chambers. 

The main takeaways from the event were the following: 

• The annual cost of fraud on the UK economy is staggering: a report by Crowe, Peters & Peters, and the University of Portsmouth put it at £219 billion in 2023.
• There is an informal double system of access to justice, depending on the victim’s resources: it is far easier for corporations or HNWY’s to sue for fraud and achieve a positive outcome  than it is for small organisations and ordinary citizens.
• While more publicised, white-collar fraud is a minority: the vast majority of fraud consists of low-value offenses committed against individuals (e.g., credit card fraud, scam calls, etc.)
• To counter white-collar fraud, where misappropriated assets are often transferred across jurisdictions, a global network of law firms has emerged with a clear incentive to collaborate across jurisdictions to benefit their respective clients. This cooperative network has enabled the ratio of successful recovery in such cases to be significantly high.

The panel provided insights into the urgency of the fight against fraud, as well as the need to make coordination among international legal teams in cross-jurisdictional matters as frictionless as possible. To this end, timely- and reliable translations of communications and evidence can make all the difference. 

We are extremely grateful to the panellists and to all participants for their insights and contributions, and look forward to supporting more such events in the future.