A noticeable increase in dawn raid activity
During the first half of the year, it has been well documented that the number of dawn raids conducted by investigators from the Serious Fraud Office has significantly increased, often with officers from other law enforcement agencies and regional police forces.
Back in February, the Director of the SFO noted the agency had searched more addresses in the preceding three months than in the preceding three years and foreshadowed more dawn raids and a recruitment drive for more Investigators to join the organisation.
The SFO is not alone in increasing the use of search warrants. Last year the Financial Conduct Authority also significantly increased the number of search operations it conducted year on year and the same can be said of HMRC as it targets frauds linked to Covid and those suspected to be evading their tax obligations.
Alongside this upsurge in search activity in recent years, we have also seen new working arrangements for employees, new corporate offences on the statute book and new choices of location where businesses can store their data.
Put together, this all means there is more complexity for businesses to wrestle with than ever before when contingency planning for the prospect of being confronted with their own dawn raid.
How Capital Law can help prepare you
At Capital Law we are experienced with the processes regulators and law enforcement agencies work through in mounting search operations. Our Business Crime and Investigations team comprises staff who have previously worked for these agencies and carried out this work.
Our Business Crime and Investigations team is already engaged with clients and can provide support at any stage allowing you to concentrate on business as usual as far as possible. We can:
- Support you in making provision for how security and reception staff first respond to a search at any of time of day and conduct site drills to stress test systems. Compile the information you need to have at your fingertips when confronted by a dawn raid, as well as assist you in devising internal and external communication strategies.
- Provide training to staff at all levels on dos and don’ts and prepare guidance documents for use during the real thing.
- Assist you in assessing how to handle implicated employees, respect reporting obligations and preserve data across your organisation.
- Provide you with legal support on matters such as the scope and validity of a warrant, injunctions, shadowing Officers on site, advising on legal professional privilege and attending interviews.
- Devise strategies for coping with the ensuing investigation and ongoing responses to requests from law enforcement and regulators on your behalf, such as in their use of powers of compulsion to obtain more material.
- Support you in advising on or conducting an independent internal investigation in relation to connected allegations.
We are proficient with all the stages of investigation that inevitably follow. These can strain businesses financially and reputationally as well as the time senior managers have to conduct the day job in.
The initial search will inevitably be followed by agencies using their compulsion powers on businesses and individuals for even more documents, information, privilege claims, and interviews of colleagues.
Our Business Crime & Investigations team can assist you in preparing for search operations, their repercussions, and how they can be avoided in the first place. Please get in touch for tailored requirements and options.
