Time To Rethink The SFO’s Corruption Policy

The importance of Thomas LJ's sentencing remarks delivered in the Innospec case on 18 March in relation to the SFO in particular and corporate criminality in general cannot be underestimated. It is a watershed judgment, raising issues of "constitutional principle" and the rule of law. It has significant implications for the SFO's policy on corporate foreign corruption and has sent a clear signal that the criminal courts cannot be bypassed and their sentencing powers ignored. The SFO needs to take immediate note to ensure that it does not become the captive of the very persons it was set up to investigate and prosecute.

It is ironic that this judgment was by a judge sitting in the Crown Court. Normally such first instance judgments carry little weight and are rarely reported. That an appellate judge who is also the deputy head of criminal justice decided to sit in the Crown Court strongly suggests that it was intended that his sentencing remarks should be widely