Plea-bargaining on FSA radar
FSA to consider US style immunity
In a bid to ensure more convictions of white-collar criminals, the
Financial Services Authority is considering
offering US-style immunity from prosecution to criminal accomplices.
This was revealed in a speech by Margaret Cole, head of enforcement at the
City regulator, to US lawyers who described such a system, as ‘valuable tool for
obtaining convictions in all manner of offenders’.
In her speech Cole said Britain’s success rate in convicting fraudsters was
‘sparse’ and contrasted it with the much greater success of prosecutors such as
Eliot Spitzer, the New York
attorney-general.
Plea bargaining is
not formally recognised in the English legal system and not approved of by the
legal establishment, The Times reported.