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SERVICES


Financial Crime

The Honeycomb team can act in either an expert or simply advisory capacity. We are happy to work on legal aid rates in criminal defence cases and stipulated government rates in assisting the prosecution.

We also provide advisory and investigative services to financial institutions, corporates and individuals, helping clients to remain robust in preventing and dealing with fraud. In the event of suspected financial crime or fraud, we provide analysis, reporting and general assistance to investigate the facts, interview those with relevant information and get to the bottom of a case.

We have particular expertise in advising major institutions on financial crime and fraud-related issues. We have handled cases both in the UK and abroad and experience with everything from minor matters to major international fraud.

Being the victim of fraud can be traumatic for businesses and business owners. It is not uncommon for targeted companies to find themselves on the receiving end of regulatory investigation and subject to adverse press or trade comments. We assist our clients to navigate their way through these difficult processes.

In the aftermath of an instance of fraud, we regularly assist clients in UK and cross-border recovery proceedings and asset tracing.

Honeycomb has extensive experience in a broad spectrum of financial crime and takes instructions on behalf of either prosecution or defence in a wide range of cases, including:

• General fraud and dishonesty cases

• Procurement fraud

• Bribery and corruption cases

• Money laundering

• False accounting

• Financial services crime

• Market abuse and insider dealing

• VAT or tax evasion

• Fraudulent trading

• Price fixing and cartel offences (Enterprise Act)

• Proceeds of crime

• Procurement fraud

• General fraud and dishonesty cases

Case Studies in Financial crime

Property Management Company Director Fraud

We successfully acted for a publicly quoted property management company in connection with a complex and devious fraud by a director who stole funds from landlord accounts, service charge accounts and tenant deposit accounts. We were able to analyse and trace sums of money being moved around a huge volume of records and dozens of bank accounts, involving literally thousands of bank statements and transactions. We traced funds through and identified £8.5 million of missing funds and, more importantly, where £6 million had gone to, and where it still was. This case included reporting to the police and assisting the prosecution in preparing the case and the evidence, and giving evidence.

Defended Individual Wrongly Charged of Smuggling

We successfully defended an individual charged with inward goods diversion – in other words, smuggling dutiable goods into the UK without paying duty. The Crown’s case was poorly prepared and relied on misconceived notions of the alleged criminal conduct involved. We performed a detailed analysis of the financial records, goods movements, port and shipping records and vehicle activity from which we were able to demonstrate that the defendant was engaged in the legitimate business of transporting goods both inward and outward between bonded warehouses and that the Crown’s conclusions were unreliable. When it came to trial, the prosecution offered no evidence.

For further reading:

•   Investigations  •  Digital forensics  •  Data Analytics •  Asset Tracing  •  Information and Intelligence Gathering