Credit Management December 2022

INSOLVENCY
AUTHOR – Christina Fitzgerald
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I would hope MPs – whether they are Committee Members or not
– will consider introducing some of the recommendations, so the UK
is better placed to tackle fraud, and minimise the number of people
suffering financially and emotionally as a result of that crime.
personally liable when fraud occurs – both
a potentially powerful deterrent and a
route for asset recovery, as well as closing a
legal loophole.
Stronger together
The Government itself has acknowledged
the importance of developing strong publicprivate
and private-private partnerships to
tackle fraud in its Economic Crime Plan
2019-22, and one area where we would
like to see more of this is around the
prosecution of directors who breach the
Insolvency Act and the Companies Act.
More director disqualifications and
prosecutions could take place if greater use
was made of the private sector’s expertise
and capacity to support the Government,
which would, we hope, prevent directors
from committing repeated frauds, improve
the deterrent for fraud, as well as reducing
Government costs.
An additional bonus would be that it
would enable an increased number of
large cases to be undertaken, as well as
allowing more of a focus on wider targets
and potentially increasing the recoveries
for victims.
And if the figures for legal proceedings
against directors who have breached
the two Acts I mentioned above were
made public, this would provide a means
of assessing the effectiveness of this
partnership – as well as a baseline for
reviewing and evolving this approach.
Worthy of consideration?
At the time of writing, the Government’s
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency
Bill is going through its Committee
Stage in the House of Commons.
I would hope MPs – whether they are
Committee Members or not – will consider
introducing some of the recommendations
made above, so the UK is better placed to
tackle fraud, and minimise the number
of people suffering financially and
emotionally as a result of that crime,
whilst increasing the likelihood of clawing
back losses.
Christina Fitzgerald is President of R3, the
insolvency and restructuring trade body.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 21