Policing serious financial crimes : an organisation of an accountants' squad

Abstract

Fraud may be defined as deliberate deception practised in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain. In respect of the international scenario, greater emphasis is being placed in the field of fraud. This has given rise to the growing importance of forensic accounting. Moreover, the ICAEW is implementing a scheme of a squad of accountants to form part of the police force, to offer their expertise in investigations of serious financial crime cases. Fraud falls under the responsibility of the Economic Crimes Unit (ECU), within the Criminal Investigation Department. It is concerned with all aspects that have an influence on the economy such as forgery, misappropriation, embezzlement, counterfeiting and breach of copyright. The ECU is made up of about thirty constables, of whom only one is a qualified accountant. This unit faces problems in investigating financial crimes due to the fact of not having people with the necessary requisites to understand such crimes. In addition, due to the fact that cases are reported on a regular basis, there are too few constables to manage with all the cases reported. For the reasons mentioned above, it leads to the fact that qualified accountants should be added to this unit, to increase the number of constables in this unit and to have people knowledgeable and with the necessary expertise to investigate serious financial crimes. Moreover, auditing firms should offer forensic accounting services, both for the public and most importantly to be available when the court requests their expertise.