The SFO failed to offer evidence against three former G4S executives at the Old Bailey last week after a ten-year investigation into allegations of fraud in connection with electronic tagging services. The three were charged in September 2020, two months after the SFO made a deferred prosecution agreement with G4S, under which G4S agreed to pay £38.5m plus costs of £5.9m.
The three former G4S executives have been acquitted of all charges.
Sean Curran, partner at Arnold & Porter, said the SFO ‘needs to be given significant resources to be invested into disclosure, training and retention if the public is to have confidence in its prosecutions in the future’.
Iskander Fernandez, partner at Kennedys, said: ‘To offer no evidence, particularly after an adjournment, smacks of a total inability to pull together a robust legal case for trial.
‘How long does it actually need to prepare for trial? Although, the bigger question is perhaps, is the SFO fit for purpose?
‘This case can now be added to the SFO’s catalogue of failings which includes its failure to successfully prosecute two Tesco executives in 2018 with the judge calling its case so weak that it could not be put to the jury. It was a similar tale with three Sarclad executives in 2019 and two former Serco executives in 2021.’
Aziz Rahman, senior partner at Rahman Ravelli, said: ‘The SFO is once again suffering huge, self-inflicted wounds.
‘It is clear from the SFO’s statement in court that the case was dropped in order to save the agency the herculean task of tackling and correcting the disclosure failings identified by the defence—and to avoid it having to explain how these disclosure mistakes were made.’
