Nick Ephgrave has the air of a copper underneath siege. A former Metropolitan police officer who as soon as pounded the pavements of Brixton in south London, the ninth director of the Critical Fraud Workplace may be forgiven for feeling claustrophobic in his workplace overlooking Trafalgar Sq..
The SFO’s places of work in Cockspur Road, close to the tourist-thronged sq. and its barrage of buskers, are a far cry from the glass and metal headquarters of the businesses it takes on.
Even to enter Ephgrave’s attic room – a small, nook workplace trying down on the gun-metal lions beneath Nelson’s Column – he should first undergo the safety of the Canadian Excessive Fee. Shabby carpet, struggling home crops and chipped mugs give an impression that’s extra Slough Home, within the TV drama Sluggish Horses, than the UK’s premier anti-fraud squad.
At the very least he has a view; a few of its workers work in its basements, taking vitamin D tablets to compensate for the dearth of pure mild. There, nearly all of the SFO’s historic case information are saved in a former swimming pool.
Its dilapidated places of work and soundtrack are distractions he may do with out. Working the SFO is among the highest-pressure jobs in legislation enforcement. His predecessors have confronted heavy criticism, a lot in order that the physique was nicknamed “The Nightmare on Elm Road”, referring to a collection of failures when it occupied its former places of work. Being compelled to put aside £250m for potential damages has earned it a brand new nickname amongst some senior Treasury officers: “The Cockups on Cockspur”.
In his most candid interview but, Ephgrave goes additional than any of his predecessors, admitting that the SFO has granted immunity from prosecution to a person who helped it to snare white-collar criminals.
Whereas he says the organisation welcomed him, Ephgrave additionally has to bat away preconceived notions of who must be working the SFO, on condition that the position is commonly finished by somebody with a authorized background.
“Clearly, I’m not a lawyer,” he says. “One of many issues I feel I deliver, which I feel my predecessors perhaps hadn’t, was expertise of progressing investigations in all kinds of various methods. Introducing new ways, new methodologies.”
Ephgrave says he confronted resistance, a way of: “‘Who is that this fella that’s are available in from policing into this fairly specialist world?’” Individuals have been anxious that this lack of authorized expertise would possibly have an effect on the “high quality of decision-making”, he provides. “Getting over that hump was a little bit of a problem, initially.”
Ephgrave might face extra such challenges sooner or later, given his shocking admission that the SFO has granted full immunity from prosecution to a person, after their help in apprehending different offenders.
He divulges the very fact whereas outlining his plans to hurry up the SFO’s notoriously gradual dealing with of instances, by way of what his US counterparts colloquially name “flipping” people, in order that offenders help the state – usually described as turning king’s proof, within the UK system. This implies, as Ephgrave explains it, utilizing covert means to collect proof on somebody after which providing them a lesser cost and even immunity from prosecution in return for his or her help gathering proof that may assist safe different convictions.
“I imply, when you have a look at the laws, I can really, as director, in actually excessive instances, authorise immunity from prosecution. Now, in fact, that will be a really, very vital step to take and it’s exhausting to think about how that will work,” he says.
Requested if it has even been used earlier than, he provides: “I consider it has, as soon as. You would possibly have to factcheck me on that however I feel it’s been used as soon as by the SFO. So I can try this, however hardly ever, hardly ever, hardly ever will we ever do it.”
It’s a startling admission. The SFO has beforehand rejected freedom of data requests on whether or not it has granted immunity associated to some particular time intervals, saying that to take action would undermine its operations.
Individuals aware of operations on the SFO confirmed that this energy has been exercised.
A former director of the SFO mentioned they’re “deeply shocked” that Ephgrave confirmed, this and that in doing so he has “set a completely new and unhelpful precedent which is irresponsible at finest”. They mentioned: “It ought to at all times be neither affirm nor deny.”
Then there may be its funds, a supply of fixed rigidity. As a uncommon prosecuting authority, the SFO takes on a number of the world’s best-resourced firms and people, who rent armies of attorneys to fend off the fraud-busters. A few of its latest high-profile instances embody a corruption and bribery case involving Rolls-Royce that resulted in an virtually £500m deferred prosecution settlement. Its investigation into the actions of the metal and buying and selling magnate Sanjeev Gupta is in its fourth 12 months.
The SFO’s annual working price of £95m is dwarfed by the cash that flows via the UK and its monetary capital. It’s minuscule in contrast with only one slice of the Metropolis’s trade, for instance: £4.2tn of property are underneath administration by its monetary professionals for abroad shoppers. Its annual funds is shaped from a posh combination of fastened funding and bids for so-called blockbuster funding for particular person instances that exceed 5% of its annual funds.
But it surely has additionally been identified for some personal objectives, making it more durable to win better sources. It’s going cap in hand within the spending assessment after already upsetting the Treasury: it was compelled to put aside £250m for potential damages as the price of cleansing up a failed prosecution of the mining firm ENRC, in line with its parliamentary funds submissions.
Ephgrave suggests that he’s assured about future funding for the SFO. A transfer from making use of for further funds in direction of upfront cash is a brand new “thrilling chance that now presents itself on this present spending assessment interval”, he says.
“That’s an association [blockbuster funding] that has been in place for a while. And it really works. I imply, it supplied us with fairly a major amount of cash yearly on the common to fund these massive instances. So it wasn’t damaged,” Ephgrave says.
However that unsure earnings makes it exhausting to recruit everlasting workers.
“So one of many issues that’s modified on this spending assessment is {that a} sure chunk of the cash that we might usually anticipate to get via blockbuster case purposes has really been supplied upfront. So that gives us with a level of certainty on funding, which permits us then to make some bolder choices round everlasting recruitment, as a result of we’ve at all times needed to have the flexibility to flex.”
That is removed from a finished deal, nevertheless, sources aware of the monetary negotiations and broader examination of the regulation and legislation enforcement of the Metropolis mentioned.
Ephgrave can be making an attempt to enhance incentives for people who assist the SFO. He needs to have the ability to pay whistleblowers, adopting a US-style method whereby informants can obtain 10-30% of the cash the federal government manages to win again from a case. If they supply “smoking gun”-type proof, the SFO director needs to have powers to do likewise, and believes that it’s going to velocity up investigations and enhance the standard of proof.
The SFO has confronted a string of massive failures in a few of its distinguished instances. Certainly one of its present prosecutions, which may pose an existential menace if unsuccessful, is towards people linked to the mining firm Glencore.
“The group that labored right here labored extraordinarily exhausting to place collectively the proof that’s allowed us to go forward and now cost six senior characters that have been in that organisation on the time. So, you understand, that’s now going to trial. It’ll, in fact, be a very vital second for us, no matter occurs at that trial,” he says.
“My job as a prosecutor is to deliver that prosecution and put it within the court docket and ideally to get previous half-time. So what occurs thereafter, I feel, is within the fingers of the jury, isn’t it? It doesn’t imply I say I’m not assured. After all I’m assured, however the level is … I feel we’ve finished a incredible job to get these expenses introduced.”
Ephgrave’s time within the Met spanned a number of the greatest challenges that organisation has confronted previously few many years. Early in his profession, he labored within the East Finish of London within the Met’s particular department, when it was dealing with repeated bomb threats from the IRA. He went again into uniform to function a sergeant in Brixton earlier than transferring to Peckham and ultimately turning into a detective chief inspector.
Reinvestigating the killers of Damilola Taylor thrust Ephgrave within the highlight, as did a stint as workers officer within the workplace of Sir Ian Blair – whose management of the Met was the supply of a lot criticism. He then returned to work on counter-terrorism earlier than turning into borough commander for Lambeth. He left the pressure after a spell as assistant commissioner for the Met.
He needs to use policing strategies and the professionalisation of areas equivalent to disclosure – handing over all related info and paperwork to the defence in a court docket course of – on the SFO. He’s additionally hiring extra investigators, fairly than attorneys.
“We’re undoubtedly investing in our investigative capability. But it surely’s not simply investigators.” There are additionally extra hires with a background in know-how who now work “within the dungeon, making an attempt to extract information from encrypted units, course of it, bundle it”, he says.
Most of its workers are excited to maneuver from its headquarters to new workplace area “with a canteen” in Canary Wharf. Just a few dread an extended commute throughout London. Whether or not they find yourself there for a shorter time frame earlier than a transfer to the NCA’s new places of work in Stratford, in a constructing shared with the Monetary Conduct Authority, stays to be seen.
Ephgrave will get some aid from Trafalgar Sq.’s buskers, not less than.