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Conveyancing Month!
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CONTENTS |
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The UK’s first monthly on-line journal dedicated to conveyancers!
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News... |
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NCIS to accept suspicious activity reports on line
The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) is to launch on-line reporting for suspicious activity reports (SARs) in April.
The system – which is intendeed to become compulsory at a later date - will be introduced to coincide with the launch of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
According to the Law Society Gazette, Robin Booth, chairman of the Law Society’s money laundering task force, has commented: ‘If we can get over the [technical] problems with the on-line form, then in principle the Law Society understands that there is strong public interest in an efficient reporting system that does not cost a lot of public money. It is likely to become compulsory at some date in the future, and we will not necessarily oppose that. Our only concern is over how long the transition is – we would have to be satisfied that it is reasonable in terms of the demands on solicitors.’
NCIS has recently released statistics for 2005, and these show a large drop in the number of SARs made by solicitors. NCIS reports that 9,608 reports were made by solicitors last year, a 50% drop when compared to 2004.
Solicitors only accounted for 5% of all reports made in 2005, compared to 12% the year before.
MLROs will also be interested in the outcome of the first trial of an MLRO accused of authorising a transaction before getting consent from NCIS. The accused is Stephen Judge, former MLRO with spread betting firm City Index., who has been charged with continuing with a suspicious transaction involving the transfer of £30,787.26 when the money should have been frozen to allow for a police investigation.
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