There are tentative signs that life may be getting just a shade more uneasy for British-based white collar fraudsters. For many of them currently, their biggest fear is the US courts, not the UK authorities.
Proposed tweaks to the guidelines from the UK's Sentencing Council require a sentencing judge to consider as a potentially aggravating factor whether offences are committed across multiple jurisdictions. The move is designed to reflect that modern fraudsters sometimes hide their crimes by spreading activities around the globe.
Meanwhile, in cases of bribery, a judge should have in mind whether the integrity of a market has been damaged, the proposals suggest.
These and other subtle shifts to the emphasis in sentencing protocols should eventually feed through to firmer sentences for convicted fraudsters. They remain, however, a long way short of the kind of radical reform required to bring UK sentencing up to the fearsome levels meted out in the US.
Former Enron boss Jeff Skilling had his sentence cut from 24 to 14 years in a deal with US prosecutors last week. In contrast to the UK justice system – which allows for release from prison after half a jail term is served – Skilling must serve at least 10 years behind bars. As a result, he could be released about the same time as Asil Nadir, one of Britain's best known fraudsters, who masterminded a colossal fraud at FTSE 100 firm Polly Peck. He was sentenced to 10 years last summer. However, he could be out in five years.
Latest UK sentencing proposals follow a ruling last month from the court of appeal encouraging judges not to feel bound by the maximum jail term for a particular offence in cases where there are convictions on multiple counts. As a result, Britain's biggest mortgage fraudster, Achilleas Kallakis, had his jail term revised up from seven to 11 years.
Meanwhile, much attention has been given to fast-developing plans for new deals that big companies may be able to strike with prosecutors, known as deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs). Earlier attempts at such deal-brokering had been crushed by the judiciary, and it remains to be seen how effective this latest attempt is.
In truth, corporate prosecutions have proved notoriously difficult to secure in UK law because they require prosecutors to prove that "a directing mind and will" of the company is guilty of an offence. Again this is in contrast with a much lower proof threshold in the US.
The latest modest moves to toughen up sanctions for white collar criminality are a step in the right direction, but they fall well short of the kind of reforms necessary to meet the coalition agreement pledge to "take white collar crime as seriously as other crime".
