NIFA is a Network of independent forensic accounting practices providing Solicitors, Barristers and Insurance Companies with forensic accounting and litigation support services. It was formed in 1999 with the aim of providing an efficient and reliable quality service by experienced forensic accountants reporting to a common standard and consistent format.

All members are qualified Accountants as well as members of either the Academy of Experts or the Expert Witness Institute and are able to pool their considerable combined forensic accounting knowledge, expertise and resources.

The Lifestyle To Which One Has Become Accustomed - 20 May 2013 Although the Office for National Statistics says that the divorce rate is the lowest it has been since 1977, in 2011, which is the most recent year it has statistics on, 10.8 marriages in 1,000 still ended in divorce and the landmark White v White ...

Give Me The Bad News First - 26 April 2013 There are daily accounts in the news of people who have been found guilty of embezzlement, fiddling their tax, hiding assets in divorce cases or perpetrating fraud on a grand scale, but little or nothing is heard about those who are accused of such c...

Forensic accounting methods save taxpayers over £1bn - 22 April 2013 The National Audit Office announced last month that its National Fraud Initiative (NFI) has saved the taxpayer over £1bn through employing forensic accounting methods and tracking cash lost through fraud, overpayment or error.  As f...

Forensic Accountants Could Check Financial Applications - 12 April 2013 As credit rating agency Experian reveals that mortgage fraud jumped by nearly 10 per cent last year, mortgage companies may have to ask forensic accountants to verify applications.  According to Experian, 38 in every 10,000 mortgage applications...

Fears over benefit fraud - 5 April 2013 With the introduction of Universal Credit giving rise to fears of mass benefit fraud, officials suspicious of people would do well to follow the methods of forensic accountants in tracking down offenders.  Universal Credit will replace benefits ...

Finding The Fiddle - 15 March 2013 As two former Crown Prosecution Service employees are convicted of making more than £1m worth of bogus claims for taxi fares, suspicious employers could put their minds at rest – or find out if their concerns are valid – by getting ...

Following the Money Trail - 11 March 2013 Finding the assets of criminals can be very difficult when people are determined to hide them but the case is made even more difficult when the perpetrators know exactly what they are doing, as in the recent case of two professionals who laundered mo...

Investigative Accountants To Find QC’s Money - 4 March 2013 As a high-flying London barrister starts a three-and-a-half year sentence for evading VAT over a twelve year period, investigative accountants must start the lengthy process of finding the cash he withheld from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).  ...

Divorce Hot Spots - 1 March 2013 As the top ten hotspots for divorce in the UK are named, divorcing couples should ensure that they have the number of a good forensic accountant in case their current other half tries to hide any of the joint assets to which they are entitled.  ...

Forensic Accountants Find ‘Systemic Fraud’ - 25 February 2013 Three more people have been arrested over alleged fraud at welfare-to-work company A4e, highlighting the importance of forensic auditors, who first picked up on anomalies at the company in 2009 during a routine internal audit.  The audit unearth...

Forensic Accounting Helps To Convict In Insurance Fraud - 22 Feb 2013 A claims management company has been shut down and two fraudsters jailed after a ‘crash for cash’ fraud ring was exposed through the work of the Metropolitan Police and painstaking backroom work on the criminals’ financial dealings....

Investigative Accounting Useful In Due Diligence - 4th February 2013 With the news that Caterpillar Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman has accepted blame for overpaying a key acquisition in China because of a “deliberate accounting misconduct”, it would be wise for businesses to remember to bri...

Following Fraudsters’ Money - 28th January 2013 With fraud of some sort or another being in the news almost every day, forensic accountants are being thrust into the limelight, with an article on the practice being used in divorce settlements even making it into the London Evening Standard this we...

Hiding Assets Won’t Work - 21st January 2013 A former property tycoon, who attempted to hide his £400m fortune in an attempt to prevent his wife getting a fair share of the assets after their divorce was jailed this week for his “deliberate” refusal to prove how he l...

Forensic Investigation Uncovers Business Loans Corruption - 14th January 2013 Following a large-scale investigation into corruption, fraud and money laundering at a high street bank, which took over two years to come to fruition, Thames Valley police have charged eight people, including two former senior manager...

Olympus CEO Called In Forensic Accountants - 4th January 2013 The first CEO to turn whistleblower, Michael Woodford, last month published a book on how he eventually called in forensic accountants to get to the bottom of the fraud that threatened his livelihood, health and even at one stage, his life....

Investigative Accountants Going Global - 14th December 2012 After As the investigation into wrongdoing over the rigging of the Libor rate continues, international regulators have now uncovered evidence leading to the arrest of two executives at broker RP Martin, while another brokerage has been asked to ...

Investigative Accounting Brings About First Land Banking Convictions - 14th December 2012 After what has been described as a “complex and painstaking investigation” into the accounts, lifestyles and business practices of a couple of conmen, the UK’s first criminal convictions and prison sentences for a land banking fraud...

Proceeds of Crime Act Nets Millions - 7th December 2012 Thanks to the diligence of investigative accountants, West Yorkshire Police were able to reveal yesterday (November 6th 2012) that they have increased the amount of cash taken though the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) every year since 2007 and last yea...

Investigative Accounting Aids Insurers Beat Cash For Crash Scams The Insurance Fraud Bureau’s (IFB) statistics from earlier this month reveal that undetected general insurance claims fraud total £2.1bn a year, adding on average £50 to the annual costs individual policyholders face, each year. ...

Rogue Trader Brought Down By Investigative Accounting The recent jailing of former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli for what the police describe as the UK’s biggest ever fraud, is in part due to the internal investigation launched in the summer of 2011 and headed by a forensic accountant. The accountan...

Unprosecuted mortgage fraud in criminal lifestyle confiscations R v Waya – the UK Supreme Court judgment Written on 16 November 2012 by David Winch in 10 most popular this month, Case law, Confiscation, Fraud, Prosecutions. The Supreme Court judgment in the case of R v Waya in November 2012 may prove to be...

Litigation Support For Business Forensic accounts are often associated with fraud, recovery of assets and finding cash in overseas accounts in criminal cases or locating where spouses have hidden assets in the divorce proceedings of the wealthy. But they are just as vital in scruti...

The Chimera on The Springboard Moylan J described the ostensible accuracy of private company valuations as being no more than a chimera whose purpose was to assist the court “in testing the fairness of the proposed outcome”. His view is shared by many judges and even t...

Picture Your Forensic Accountant in the Hot-Tub…. ...And Ask Yourself How You Feel About the Mental Image You Have Conjured Up. It seems likely that the giving of concurrent evidence by expert witnesses, so-called ‘Hot-tubbing’ is likely to become ever more common, not least because the...

Placing a Value on Free Time in Loss of Earnings Cases Consider a self-employed consultant who claims compensation for loss of earnings as a result of a personal injury. Suppose that the Claimant earned £30k pa before the accident and but has earned only £15k after the accident, as evidenced ...

The Money Laundering (Amendment) Regulations 2012 by David Winch Amendments to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 came into force on 1 October 2012, but what effect will these have on practitioners?  The answer in most cases is likely to be ‘little or none’. It is now five years since th...

Confiscation – available amount This article by David Winch article considers what is meant by a defendant’s ‘available amount’ and explains some of the rules the court must follow in determining the ‘available amount’. In confiscation proce...

Money laundering – entering into an arrangement – s328 PoCA 2002 by David Winch Prosecutors are sometimes tempted, unwisely, to strain the meaning of statutory provisions in order to charge a defendant.  There have been a couple of successful appeals recently against money laundering convictions unders328 Proceeds of Crime ...

Local authority to use Proceeds of Crime Act to crack down on rogue landlords A London local authority is to crack down on rogue landlords using a law normally seen in fraud cases involving forensic accountancy expert evidence. Newham Council is to apply the Proceeds of Crime Act, originally aimed at stripping drug dealers of...

The use of experts, including forensic accountants, is to be cut back in Family Court The use of experts in Family Court, to include forensic accountants, is to be curbed under new UK Justice Ministry proposals. As a report by Mr Justice Ryder on the operation of child proceedings is published, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, war...

Forensic accountants soon to dip a toe in the evidential 'hot tub' Experts have given a broad ‘thumbs up’ to evidential ‘hot tubbing’ in Court in experiments that could soon be introduced in trials involving forensic accountants. The new practice, where experts give evidence in the witness b...

Forensic accountant for the high jump in charity bid One NIFA member is aiming high in a bid to raise money to help adults with acquired brain injury. Forensic accountant, Roger Isaacs, is set to take one small step for him and one giant leap for the charity, Headway Somerset. Announcing his sponsore...

Forensic accountants and other experts consulted in Family Court changes Forensic accountants are amongst a wide variety of experts being consulted over proposed changes in the way specialists are used in Family Court. Hot on the heels of an update of the civil experts code, the move is aimed at private law financial rem...

Forensic accountants feature in new experts code Forensic accountants are being asked to brush up on a new version of the Experts Protocol published by the Civil Justice Council. The total rewrite, titled ‘Guidance for the instruction of experts to give evidence in civil claims 2012’, ...

Forensic accountants unlikely to be caught on camera UK Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke QC has unveiled plans to allow cameras in Court for the first time in British legal history but it seems unlikely that forensic accountants and other experts will appear live on TV. Mr Clarke said the move was aim...

Prominent former MP declared unfit to face trial over parliamentary expenses charges An ex-MP due to stand for trial accused of fiddling her parliamentary expenses has been declared unfit to stand trial. NIFA News has learnt that, according to consultant psychiatrist Philip Joseph, the former member for Luton South, 56 year old Marg...

Forensic accountants key to a six million pound ‘fish scam’ confiscation hearing Illegal fish catches cost nearly fifty million pounds in lost revenue, according to forensic accountancy evidence being considered by the High Court in Edinburgh.   In a case that has become known as the ‘black fish’ scam, prosecut...

Firm mounts fightback after forensic accountants uncover scandal Shareholders at global camera giant, Olympus, have voted in a new board after forensic accountants in Japan uncovered a one billion pound scandal involving the hiding of losses going back over twenty years.   The company had nominated new memb...

Watch out there’s a forensic accountant about !! Judges and forensic accountants appear to be the professionals to watch for when it comes to keeping a close eye on business expenses, according to an article in the Irish Times on the latest consumer gadgets.   It describes one expenses track...

Row breaks out over allegations that corruption investigation lacked forensic accountancy evidence A row has broken out over allegations by former Irish Prime Minister Bertie A'Hern that an anti-corruption tribunal report “..had been arrived at without deploying the services of a forensic accountant..”   The fomer Taoiseach's st...

Recruitment drive unearths the origins of modern forensic accountancy The early origins of forensic accountancy have come to light from an unexpected source, the latest recruitment drive by the FBI to boost the number of investigators employed to follow the money and unearth evidence of modern crimes from terrorism to ...

NIFA member gets to grips with money laundering In the latest crackdown on suspected money laundering, officers from HM Revenue and Customs have raided a canal boat moored in the centre of Leeds and arrested a sixty four year old man in a joint operation with police and the UK Border Agency. The ...

Forensic accountants on standby to figure out allegations of expert witness perjury Forensic accountants are set to check out the financial impact of allegations that expert witnesses have made false claims that could add up, said a senior judge, to perjury ‘on an industrial scale’.   The allegations come amid a l...

Forensic accountants campaign against Government legal aid fee cuts Forensic accountants are among a wide range of experts who have launched a campaign for a judicial review of a Government decision to force through caps on expert fees in publicly-funded cases before the Family Court. The organisation, known as the ...

Forensic accountants to face giving 'paperless' evidence in Court The Crown Prosecution Service is to experiment with 'paperless' criminal trials as lawyers in selected Courts are given laptops and electronic tablets. The plan could mean expert witnesses including forensic accountants giving evidence electronicall...

Witness fees 'row' hits leading UK accountancy firm The Government of the Channel Island state of Jersey has claimed that a leading accountancy firm billed inappropriately for the cost of attending a hearing that was set up to examine the costs of a state enquiry into child abuse on the island. Deput...

Isle of Man tax haven more open thanks to forensic accountants Forensic accountants, economists and lawyers at the heart of an organisation campaigning against tax havens have praised the Isle of Man Government for their efforts to make money laundering and tax avoidance more difficult. The Tax Justice Network ...

Forensic accountants in energy price investigation UK energy industry regulator Ofgem has called in forensic accountants as it steps up its investigation into pricing by the big six suppliers. The action has been prompted by EDF Energy's decision to put up its gas prices by 15.4 per cent and electri...

UK audit industry faces competition investigation After much discussion, consumer watchdog, The Office of Fair Trading, has decided to call for an independent inquiry into the audit industry following criticism of the actions of four of Britain's largest accountancy firms. The OFT started to exam...

Accountancy giant denies allegations that it missed US mortgage fraud A leading international accountancy firm is facing allegations that it did not use sufficient forensic skills to detect fraud while auditing an American mortgage company that went under in the US housing crash. Complaints have been filed in a Florid...

Forensic accountants help uncover theft of charity money Howard Rose (c) BBC News     A sixty-three year old charity administrator is serving a fifteen month jail term after he admitted stealing more than seventy six thousand pounds from a children's charity. York Crown Court was to...

Self-assessment paper problems no bar to accurate tax payments Around half a million self-employed taxpayers are being given an extra two months to make their July tax payment because of an error by the UK tax authorities. It's been revealed that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs did not order enough special ...

MPs criticise the taxman for poor customer service Within days of admitting under-ordering paper for tax statements, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs has once again been forced to apologise, this time for poor customer service. The criticism came from the Treasury Select Committee of MPs, who con...

Expert witness immunity against suit falls in landmark Supreme Court decision In a landmark Supreme Court decision, a panel of seven senior judges has decided that expert witnesses, across the criminal, family and civil courts, should no longer have immunity from claims against them for breach of duty in contract or in neglige...