ECCTA Failure to Prevent Fraud - What You Need to Know (Jul 25)
Category: Law & Regulation and Compliance | Duration: 1hr | Tag: VODUK2543 | Type: Video | Course Level: Foundation | Speaker: Henry Pocock | Date: 17/07/2025 10:00
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 course Henry Pocock covers 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.
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.