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Foreign prosecutors sought Jersey's help 90 times last year

Foreign prosecutors sought Jersey's help 90 times last year

Thursday 19 August 2021

Foreign prosecutors sought Jersey's help 90 times last year

Thursday 19 August 2021


Foreign prosecutors asked for Jersey’s help on 90 occasions last year, with most requests relating to fraud and money laundering cases, while one was linked to an alleged kidnapping.

In their annual report, the Law Officers' Department explained that it had seen a 13% decrease in requests for help with investigations from other regions between 2019 and 2020.

Most of the requests came from Europe - 47 requests across 2020 - following a trend over the past three years.

The second highest number of requests - 24 - came from the UK and Channel Islands.

Mutual_Legal_Aid_requests.png

Pictured: There has been a 13% decrease in requests since 2019.

Seven requests came from Asia, five from Africa, four from the US, two from South America, and one from Australia.

The offence types, of which some requests featured more than one, were:

  • Fraud - 53 cases

  • Money Laundering - 30 cases

  • Corruption - 11 cases

  • Drug related - 11 cases

  • Robbery/theft - 12 cases

  • Other - 10 cases

  • Murder/Serious Assault - two cases

  • Organised crime - two cases

  • Insider trading - one case

  • Counterfeiting and forgery - one case

  • Kidnapping - one case

Out of the 90 requests sent to them, the Law Officers' Department provided formal assistance on 29 of them, and five were provided with informal assistance.

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Pictured: Several notices were given out as a consequence of reports from other jurisdictions.

Nine requests were either withdrawn, referred or refused - on this note, the annual report states that while "requests are rarely refused", in some cases "it becomes impossible to assist for a variety of reasons."

"For instance, the Attorney General may refuse to assist in cases which are potentially politically motivated," the report explained.

The remaining 47 requests were still pending by the end of the year.

Of the notices served and orders obtained as a result of this assistance:

  • 10 related to the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) (Jersey) Law 2001
  • Investigation of Fraud (Jersey Law 1991) - Between 15 and 19
  • Civil Asset Recovery (Jersey Law) 2007 - Between 1 and 3

Similarly, in terms of legislation used to provide assistance, the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) (Jersey) Law 2001 came top with 14 uses.

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Pictured: Jersey's requests to other jurisdictions almost halved in 2020.

External requests to other jurisdictions from the island stood at nearly half as many as in 2019, with 19 requests in 2020 in comparison to the previous year's 34.

One of the Law Officers' Department's biggest international cooperation success stories was recently brought back into the public spotlight, when it was revealed that a plan to return £3m in confiscated criminal funds to Kenya was in its final stages.

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