Hawthorne Partners builds criminal cases against those who commit financial fraud. We act for the companies, lenders, investors and creditors they defraud — assembling evidence to the criminal standard and taking the case to court through instructed counsel.
Reported fraud vastly exceeds the capacity of any police force to pursue it. Files are closed for want of resource, not for want of evidence. The loss stands, the conduct goes unanswered, and the perpetrator moves on to the next set of victims.
A prosecution changes that calculation. Where the evidence is sufficient and prosecution is in the public interest, a victim may bring criminal proceedings in their own name — with the compensation and confiscation powers of the criminal courts behind them. Our work is to build cases that meet that standard and withstand every test applied to them.
Criminal proceedings brought in the victim's name, prepared to the standard the Crown itself would have to meet.
The evidential foundation. Where the money went, who moved it, and what the documents prove about intent.
Prosecution is one route to a result. Frequently it runs alongside recovery, or persuades an agency to act.
A prosecution is not a commercial threat dressed as a criminal case. It is subject to review, to takeover by the Crown Prosecution Service, and to the full disclosure obligations of the prosecuting party. We assume all of it at the outset, because a case built any other way will not survive.
We advise on whether the evidence would afford a realistic prospect of conviction — the same test the Code for Crown Prosecutors requires. If it does not, we say so before a penny is spent on proceedings.
Scale of loss, sophistication, vulnerability of victims and the risk of repetition are assessed and recorded. A prosecution brought for improper motive is an abuse of process, and we will not prepare one.
Material that undermines the prosecution or assists the defence is identified and disclosed. Schedules are maintained to CPIA standards from the first document received.
The conduct of litigation and rights of audience are reserved under the Legal Services Act 2007. We prepare, investigate and instruct; regulated counsel and authorised firms discharge the reserved work and appear in court.
The loss, the documents and the identifiable suspects are reviewed against the evidential and public-interest tests. You receive a written view on whether a prosecution is viable.
Evidence is gathered and preserved to criminal standards — continuity, exhibits, statements, expert analysis — so that it is admissible rather than merely persuasive.
Charges are selected, informations drafted, disclosure scheduled and counsel instructed. The file is built to be handed to a court, or to an agency, without rework.
Counsel conducts the prosecution; we run the evidence behind it through to verdict, compensation and confiscation — and to recovery of prosecution costs where the court allows.
Illustrative of the matter types on which the firm is instructed. Figures indicate scale only; no specific instruction, client or proceeding is identified.
£14m extracted from a group's purchase ledger over six years. Payment records rebuilt from source, four suspects identified, case file prepared for counsel.
1,100 investor accounts reconciled against promoter bank data to show where subscription monies actually went; evidence package delivered to the investigating agency.
On-chain tracing through forty-plus wallet hops and three exchanges, reported in a form usable in both sets of proceedings and to support freezing relief.
Nine years of payroll rebuilt for a mid-market employer; report prepared for the board, for insurers, and as the foundation of a charge decision.
Pre-insolvency transfers traced to connected parties; conduct evidenced for prosecution and for parallel recovery on behalf of the creditor body.
Send a short outline of the loss, the documents you hold and the parties involved. Referrals from companies, insolvency practitioners, creditor groups and regulated firms are reviewed by a principal.
legal@hawthornepartners.co.uk