Peters & Peters

Criminal Fraud

Peters & Peters is the leading firm for criminal fraud cases, acting in many of the UK corporate fraud cases in the last 25 years.

Recognised as the outstanding practitioners in the legal directories for all aspects of criminal fraud, we are ranked in the top tier for white-collar crime by legal directories Chambers and Legal 500.

Legal 500 2024 recognises our “enviable fraud credentials” and that we “act for corporate and individual clients in fraud-related cases”.

As the leading criminal fraud law firm, we represent individuals and companies across a wide spectrum of cases including:

    • serious and complex fraud
    • mortgage fraud
    • Ponzi schemes
    • advanced fee fraud
    • insider deal
    • market manipulation
    • boiler room scams
    • offences under the Fraud Act
    • conspiracy to defraud
    • false accounting
    • Companies Act offences
    • Director disqualification
    • tax fraud.

Our specialist team advises suspects and defendants on all aspects of an investigation and prosecution including Dawn Raids, search and seizure, arrest, interview, plea, trial and sentencing.

We regularly achieve outstanding results for our clients with many cases being discontinued or stayed before trial and many securing a not guilty verdict at trial.

Peters & Peters defends cases tenaciously for all our clients. Nevertheless, where appropriate, we also have a great deal of expertise advising on whether to self-report misconduct to the authorities, how and when to seek immunity from prosecution, plea bargaining (SOCPA agreements) and what the impact of these steps can be in the context of global investigations.

We also assist companies who have had a fraud perpetrated on them by an employee or third party by conducting Internal Investigations, gathering evidence, liaising with authorities or bringing a Private Prosecution. We help identify remedial action to prevent fraud occurring in the future.

Peters & Peters also has very wide experience dealing with compulsory disclosure notices, for example with SFO section 2 notices (and other compulsory disclosure orders) and we can coordinate the gathering and review of material (including forensic analysis), its disclosure to the SFO and making representations to the SFO about the reasonableness and proportionality of notices as well as on issues such as privilege.

Some of our cases relate solely to the UK and involve agencies such as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the National Crime Agency (NCA), the police and the CPS, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Home Office.

However, a significant proportion of our work relates to global investigations involving numerous overseas bodies such as the US Department of Justice (DoJ); the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). This experience is invaluable when considering the risks and liabilities that a company or individual is exposed to in this context.

  • We successfully defended a senior executive of leading UK provider of public services SERCO from prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office, resulting in the collapse of the SFO’s case.
  • We secured the acquittal of Richard Boath, a former Barclays senior executive, in a landmark prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office.
  • Peters & Peters advised Wonga in relation to a potential City of London Police investigation into letters threatening legal action that were sent to its customers purporting to be from law firms that didn’t actually exist. The firm made detailed representations to the police, which resulted in a decision not to proceed further, despite media calls for an investigation.
  • We acted for a leading international bank in the global investigations into alleged manipulation of the LIBOR rate.