Course Details

The Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (“ECCTA”) represents the most fundamental change in decades to corporate criminal liability in the UK.  Under the provisions of ECCTA already in force, the scope of criminal liability for companies has been significantly broadened.  It will broaden even further from 1 September 2025.


Regulatory action has been ramping up with increased cooperation between agencies both nationally and internationally to combat fraud and hold those to account who have either taken part in fraudulent activity or who have not taken steps to stop such activity occurring.


Auditors and accountants are under increased scrutiny in the light of recent controversies and therefore members of those professions need to be aware of the legislation, how it affects them and their clients and what they and their clients need to be doing to identify and deal with fraud risks.

 

In this webinar Henry Pocock will cover the following topics:

  • Background to ECCTA: Who does it apply to and when?
  • “Failure to prevent fraud”:  What is the “reasonable procedures” defence?  How can it be deployed?
  • “Senior manager regime”: Who is a senior manager and why is that now important?
  • Whistleblowing:  Why is whistleblowing important and should whistleblowers be incentivised?
  • What should organisations be doing now? Practical steps that organisations should be taken to include examples of recent fraud cases.

 

By attending the session delegates will obtain an understanding of some of the most significant aspects of ECCTA and be able to identify how it affects them, their organisation and the organisations with whom they come into contact.  They will also leave the session armed with practical steps that can be applied in their own organisations or can talk to clients and contacts about.


The session will be illustrated with real life cases explaining trends we are seeing in recent frauds, including the way in which the fraud was perpetrated, the motivation behind the fraud and how it was detected.  These cases should be both interesting and thought provoking for delegates as some of the features that allowed the fraud to happen may be relevant to their own organisations.


This webinar will be of most interest to

  • Business owners
  • Auditors (internal/external)
  • Accountants
  • Anyone in a governance or oversight role

 

Course level: Foundation and Need to know

 


CPD Course Speaker

Partner Forensic Services

Henry Pocock

Henry joined FRP in 2021 as a Partner in the Forensic Services team and is based in the Birmingham office. With more than 20 years’ experience in forensic accounting, Henry specialises in fraud and regulatory investigations, disputes and professional negligence claims. He works across court, arbitration and mediation forums and has been appointed as an independent accounting expert on numerous occasions. Henry’s investigation experience includes misappropriation and financial statement frauds, whistleblower investigations and asset tracing. Recent assignments include the investigation of theft of funds by an employee, the falsification of marketing data in order to obtain funding grants and an accounts misstatement fraud involving the inflation of stock and work in progress balances. Henry has also advised clients who have suffered frauds on claims for negligence against professional advisers, including accountants, auditors and corporate finance providers. Henry’s clients range from individuals to multi-national listed companies across a number of industry sectors including energy, infrastructure, transport, telecoms, technology, media and private equity.