Army of undercover agents to target boardroom crooks

Telegraph

19-06-2025

Britain's most senior fraud-buster is planning to hire an army of whistleblowers and undercover agents as part of a crackdown on white-collar crime in the City.
Nick Ephgrave, chief of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), has vowed to ramp up the use of 'covert tactics' as he relies on skills learnt during three decades in the Metropolitan Police.
As part of the overhaul, he wants undercover officers, paid informants and targeted surveillance operations to help pin down perpetrators of complex corporate frauds.
'Fraudsters are just criminals acting in a different sphere,' he said.
'They're cheating ordinary people, taking money, and damaging the country – the same as gunrunners, drug smugglers and all the rest.
'We should therefore use as much of the tactical armoury that we can against them. That was something I brought in from my policing background, and we are continuing to build that capability.'
More than 3.3m frauds were reported in 2024, resulting in in losses worth £1.17bn. This was a 12pc increase on the 3m cases the previous year, according to a UK Finance report.
Mr Ephgrave claims to have already made significant headway on tackling the issue since taking over the SFO in 2023, but he is not resting on his laurels.
'I've opened 12 cases since I've started, more than any other director in that period of time,' he said.
'You've got a very, very hungry director of the SFO that is determined to find out. I'm pushing for whistleblowing. I'm pushing for people to come forward. I'm using more covert tactics. I'm getting into your boardrooms.
'Criminals are bullies. They steal, they cheat, they hurt people. You need to stand up to them, and I enjoy doing that. Who wouldn't want to get fired up and enthusiastic about doing that job?
'That's the same motivation whether you're a PC on the beat or director of the SFO.'
Police force
To boost his cause, Mr Ephgrave is planning to join other forces across Britain in paying whistleblowers for information.
'You only need to look at America to see how effective a properly resourced and arranged incentivised whistleblowing scheme is,' he said.
'Since 2012, 700 UK nationals have gone to the States to blow the whistle, when they could have done it here and this country could have benefited from that.
'Not only could we potentially have had the prosecutions here, but the fines and the money that comes from those prosecutions goes into the Treasury. We've lost all that – it's gone to America.'
Prior to taking the top job at the SFO, Mr Ephgrave had served as the third-highest-ranking officer in the Metropolitan Police Service under the leadership of Cressida Dick.
This set him apart from all other former SFO directors, who forged their careers as lawyers before taking on the top job at the fraud agency.
'When I came to the end of my policing career, I still had plenty of fire in my belly,' he said. 'I still wanted to be involved in law enforcement. I still wanted to do the best I could for this country.'
Now, as the SFO's new director, he wants to use what he learnt in the police to help the UK fraud agency take a more 'practical and pragmatic approach'.
'I spent 35 years investigating stuff in the police so I do have the benefit of a huge amount of experience,' he said. 'I've made all the mistakes. I've done all the things to learn.
'Policing operates in a much faster-paced environment. It's a quicker turnaround. We can learn some of those lessons and bring them into the SFO and we've been doing that.'
He believes such tactics can help the SFO take shortcuts to fast-track fraud cases in a way that avoids dragging the agency into risky and expensive trials in court.
Growth mission
The plan forms part of a wider carrot-and-stick approach to tackling fraud through which Mr Ephgrave is seeking to offer deals in the form of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs).
The agreements let companies avoid criminal trials and typically result in them being forced to pay a fine.
'If you come forward, self-disclose, and fully cooperate with us, we will enter into a DPA with you,' Mr Ephgrave said, 'which means your company can survive and carry on being a profitable organisation, carry on employing people, and carry on being a benefit to the country.'
Whistleblowers also offer a way to cut out much of the time spent trawling through documents by pointing the SFO's investigators directly to the source.
'The average size of our investigation is about 5m documents,' Mr Ephgrave said.
'We have a current case on our books with more than 40m documents. One thing whistleblowing can do is take us to the source of the evidence much more quickly, so we haven't got to go out and trawl through tons and tons of stuff.'
This renewed focus has already seen him take 'tough decisions to shut cases' that were going nowhere.
'We've got limited resources,' he said. 'I cannot afford to have teams working away on lost causes, so we have to be really hard-nosed and say: 'We're not going anywhere with this''.
As for the recent £8.3m funding boost from the Government's spending review, he plans to invest the cash in the SFO's intelligence capabilities and expand its investigative reach.
'We fundamentally believe the SFO is a crucial actor in the growth mission,' he said.
'This country has to be a reliable and safe place for businesses to conduct their business, which means we can have no tolerance for corruption, bribery or large-scale fraud.
'We will pursue every allegation that is appropriate for us to pursue to make this country a really safe and secure place to do business and that's what's going to drive growth.
'If we don't do that, if we fall down on our mission and let all that stuff slip, then this is going to become a wild west again, and reputable companies are going to think twice about investing here.'