The winners of the inaugural National Investigation Officers’ Group awards were announced at this year’s National Investigations Conference in May.
There were two awards this year – one for Innovation and the other for Investigation of the Year. The awards were announced by NIOG’s Chief Executive, Mike Neumann, and presented by the Vice-President, John Stalley.
Innovation – Barnet’s Unified Investigation, Enforcement and Prosecution Service
The London Borough of Barnet has seen a large number of outsourced services brought back in-house. The Executive Director and Deputy-Director responsible for these services decided that this provided an ideal opportunity to take a fresh look at the approach taken to enforcement and investigation across the borough. The approach they’ve taken is innovative – treating the enforcement teams as being part of a unified unit – meaning that, for the first time, there will be specialist officers looking at (almost) all public safety, fraud and corruption issues for the entire borough.
This approach has also led to the creation of a single crime intelligence unit for the borough, giving the opportunity to assess all the information that they hold and that is provided to them, in order to make sure that intelligence of wrongdoing is viewed in connection with how it effects all and any parts of the services that the council provides and that incoming reports are viewed alongside historic data, crime pattern information and crime hotspots to provide a better picture of the threats the council is facing. Risks will be routinely assessed, allowing management to be made aware at an early stage of trends as well as emerging risks and changes that might impact on the investigation and Enforcement activities relating to all council services.
The teams are able to access one single set of overarching policies, one set of standardised procedures (for the most part) and will be set up to work together on investigations that threaten more than one service area, rather than undertake (potentially wasteful) separate investigations. This allows a greater range of sanctions to be considered as well as the best possible outcomes to be achieved. This approach is supported by the Councils Legal department.
There will be a unified approach to training across all investigation, enforcement and prosecution officers and this will lead to an increased level of professionalism throughout the service. This approach will also make it easier for staff members to work more collaboratively between areas, allowing for greater flexibility to address changes to risks identified by the intelligence unit.
This internal joint working model also allows for a greater level of external partnership working with agencies such as Police, HMRC, NCA and DWP etc
Although this is in its early stages, they are already starting to see the impact of these changes on the services they provide to the public.
The NIOG award for Innovation recognises this different approach to investigation in Local Government
Investigation of the Year – Hertfordshire’s Shared Anti-Fraud Service into the case of Noble and the Borrells.
Hertfordshire’s Shared Anti-Fraud Service are one of the leading teams in investigating social-care fraud.
This award surrounds one particular case of fraud against the social care payment system. The case in question surrounds a couple who defrauded the system out of nearly £625,000 over thirteen years, in order to fund a life of luxury. The hard work of the investigation team led to the conviction of three people and the recovery of some of the losses.
This was not a simple investigation. It involved several SAFS staff, included multiple production orders, digital forensics and large numbers of witnesses from several sectors. The team worked closely with their barrister throughout the investigation and with the police in the final stages, to facilitate arrests and searches.
In terms of social care crime, Judge Richard Foster described the case as “possibly the largest fraud of its type to come before the English courts”.
This case clearly illustrates the importance of using a variety of techniques and involving the appropriate experts early on in the investigation.
The NIOG award for Investigation of the Year recognises both the efforts of all those involved and the collaborative nature of the investigation.