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Corporate fraud watchdog's reforms 'are destructive'

Published on 11 May 2010 under category: legal

Reforms made by an industry watchdog to encourage more reporting of corporate crime are proving counterproductive, according to one commentator.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has this week failed to secure a high-profile conviction against four British Airways executives for corporate fraud.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Damian Reece attacked the weakness of the three main industry watchdogs.

He also criticised the reform which grants whistleblowers' immunity from prosecution, as he says that the evidence was supplied in this case by someone who may have contravened the law.

"Ridgway himself has admitted to the crimes the BA defendants denied – hardly the sort of thing the chief executive of any company, never mind an airline, should have on their CV.

"The use of whistleblowers, and the granting of immunity, has been badly dented as a legal device as a result … its use, certainly in criminal cases, must now be reviewed."

Mr Reece called for the breakup of the OFT, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Services Authority.

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