Private Criminal Prosecutions

What is a Private Criminal Prosecution?

A private prosecution is one that differs from an ordinary criminal prosecution, because instead of being prosecuted by a public prosecutor, it is prosecuted by a private prosecutor, often paid for by interested parties such as victims.

The primary role of the Crown Prosecution Service in an ordinary criminal prosecution is to review evidence and prosecute on behalf of the state, however they will only prosecute a case if there is enough evidence and the case is in the public interest.

Why is there a need for Private Criminal Prosecution?

When non-law enforcement bodies, such as private organisations, conduct investigations they often prepare evidential packages containing all relevant evidence such as exhibits, statements etc and forward these to the police for action such as obtaining warrants and making arrests.

When these cases enter the criminal justice system they come under the control of the CPS who effectively take ownership of the prosecution resulting in the victim organisation losing any influence in the strategy of the prosecution including the issue of costs and compensation.

In a CPS controlled prosecution any compensation orders that are made results in the monies being directed to the Treasury under the Home Office Incentivisation Scheme. Whilst the Incentivisation Scheme has been successful it is not intended to fully compensate the victims of the crime as noted above. Criminal benefits identified in the possession of the offender(s) that result in a Proceeds of Crime confiscation order being made are divided using the following scale:

• 50% goes to the HM Treasury with the other 50% being split into thirds:
  • One third goes to the Court of jurisdiction that makes the order;
  • One third goes to the LEA Financial Investigator (FI);
  • The final third goes to victim of the crime.  

That means that the victim organisation will only ever actually realise 1/6th of their losses if they support a prosecution by the normal route using the Police and Crown Prosecution Service.

In contrast, the POC Management Private Criminal Prosecution model allows the victim organisation to retain control of the prosecution at all stages, resulting in a full end to end case management process. Because of this control the organisations are able to apply for costs and compensation that, if granted, will be awarded to the victim and not to the government and other agencies listed above. 

This radical approach to criminal prosecutions is currently not offered by any other consultancy company in the UK and has been used successfully by only one other organisation in the telecommunications sector and was pioneered by the directors of POC Management.