Bribery Act Case Flags Need For Active Prevention

The outcome of a failure to prevent bribery case shows how seriously prosecutors are taking compliance

Corporations in the UK are facing pressure to not merely abstain from crime, but to actively prevent their staff committing it. Where once companies would not be culpable for the misbehaviour of staff, they are now being asked to have adequate measures in place to stop tax evasion and bribery, or face punishment.

After the Home Office published an anti-corruption strategy in December, some campaigners called for this approach to be applied to other types of economic crime.

Yet it is only now we are seeing what a prosecution under the Bribery Act 2010, which originated the approach under its section 7, looks like when it gets to court.