SERCO SUBSIDIARY AVOIDS PROSECUTION FOR FRAUD

A subsidiary company of Serco, which administered the use of electronic tags on convicted offenders, has avoided prosecution despite admitting three offences of fraud and two of false accounting. Instead, the court gave leave for a deferred prosecution agreement to be entered into with the Serious Fraud Office, subject to payment of a £19m penalty and costs. The fraudulent scheme involved 'cooking the books' to conceal a profit of 50 per cent when there had been a projected profit margin of 14 per cent. This meant a loss of around £12.8m to the Ministry of Justice though this has been repaid. 4 July 2019