Bribery and corruption prosecutions are being hit by a “brain drain” of whistleblowers going abroad, the head of the Serious Fraud Office has said.
The agency’s ability to fight major corporate fraud cases is severely hampered by the UK’s lack of incentive payments for whistleblowers, according to Nick Ephgrave.
He said this has led to hundreds of whistleblowers, many of whom hold vital intelligence on economic crimes and financial misconduct, leaving the UK and going to other countries such as America where they are eligible for reward payments.
Mr Ephgrave is urging ministers to set up a similar scheme in the UK that would see whistleblowers paid for information that leads to successful convictions.
“We are tolerating an enormous missed opportunity,” he told The Telegraph.
“If this were terrorism, gun money or child abuse, and we had this huge missed opportunity to deal with that - there would be outcry, there would be absolute horror.
“This is fraud, this is high-level bribery and corruption. This is 40 per cent of crime in this country.”
Mr Ephgrave, a former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, added: “We know that there are very effective programs elsewhere, the exemplar is in the United States.
“These are opportunities which are being taken elsewhere because we do not have an equivalent system here. And that, in my view, is leading to a brain drain.”
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