2018 North West Enterprise Awards

SME NEWS / NorthWest Enterprise Awards 2018 27 Altia-ABM Software Helps Bust Major Fraud In Cumbria g “As a detective with over 20 years’ experience, the key to a successful prosecution is being able to create a body of evidence which is robust and cannot be picked apart in court. We have to present a case to the Crown Prosecution Service which is meticulous, proving the full extent of activity by named individuals at a particular date, time and place, interaction between the guilty parties and how financial transactions have been used to perpetrate the offending.” “In court, the defence barristers will question police officers at great length with the objective of finding any inconsistency or inaccuracy. If there is any inconsistency or if officers do not have the facts at their fingertips, the entire case could be dismissed.” “I’ve used Altia-ABM technology for many years, for all my recent cases, we use the software here to run all of our significant investigations, as do staff in other teams involving drugs and firearms offences. Our unit has a success rate of 100% on all of our operations since adopting this software.” Technology is also a key method of demonstrating how individuals benefit financially from their crimes, enabling the police to confiscate assets and freeze bank accounts. Police forces in the UK have confiscated £891 million since 2010 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, with £110 million being returned to victims. Ian Watson, CEO of Altia-ABM said: “Altia-ABM Insight is an end-to- end investigation management system that is fully auditable, enabling police officers and financial investigators to illustrate every step of an investigation and prepare court- ready documents that greatly help to secure a conviction. We are pleased to have close relationships with financial investigators in the UK, from police forces, the NCA and the Home Office, who rely on our products to unravel the web of financial transactions conducted by criminals and demonstrate their guilt.” Detective Sergeant Jason Burke continued: “Case management systems, such as Insight from Altia-ABM, are increasingly important, for two reasons. “Firstly, police forces have an increasing duty of disclosure. We have to be meticulous in disclosing every item of unused material to the defence team for the accused. A case management system such as Altia-ABM is the ideal way to record everything in a manner that will be accessible for the officers and the solicitors to review throughout the judicial process.” “Secondly, fraud is becoming increasingly sophisticated and criminals constantly evolve new methods to try to escape detection. The use of multiple businesses to evade proper scrutiny of company directors and the accounts, with the intention of using the corporate structures for money laundering and fraud is now common practice – with this increasingly prevalent use of complex business arrangements, technology is a very important part of achieving the pinpoint analysis that brings these crimes to light.” Altia-ABM is a leader in software for criminal and financial investigations, and software and systems for the management of covert operations and intelligence gathering. The firm has experienced very rapid growth in recent years. Turnover rose by 61% from £2.8m in 2016 to an expected £5m by the end of 2018. Between 2012 and 2017 the firm’s turnover grew by 600%. Altia-ABM’s UK operations are based in Glasgow and Nottingham, with international offices in Toronto and Melbourne. The firm’s products and services are sold to customers in Australia, Africa, the USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand anZd Central and South America. FRAUD PREVE TION Altia-ABM Sof tware