Financial Investigation: Establishing the Principles of a Generic and effective Philosophy

Financial investigation is a term usually synonymous with asset recovery, an association which may be a significant inhibitor to its wider consideration and application outside the specialist sphere of the UK confiscation regime. This thesis brings an original contribution to the literature in this area through critically analysing the conceptual understanding of financial investigation and financial intelligence within UK law enforcement at strategic, mid management and practice levels. Attention also focuses upon why successive governments and commentators express continuing advocacy of the wider potential of the financial investigation skillset for general investigation which does not seem to translate into effective application. The work offers an empirical study of survey-based data collection involving three hundred and forty-five respondents (n=345) in four significant areas, financial investigation, financial investigation strategy, financial intelligence, and to what extent it is integrated with the National Intelligence Model for practical outcomes. Survey results appear to question current training arrangements for financial investigation within law enforcement and provide original insights into its use by specialists and generalists. This results in the identification of some potential inhibitors to more widespread application of financial investigation and intelligence techniques. The data and findings from its analysis highlight instances of good practice, while contemporaneously exposing potential issues which may contribute to a reduced application of financial investigation outside the specialist asset recovery arena.

Copyright in this thesis is Crown Copyright.