Who We Are

Lord Garnier KC

We are delighted to welcome Lord Garnier KC as Patron of the Fraud Advisory Panel.

Edward Garnier KC is a highly experienced silk in England & Wales and Northern Ireland.

His practice includes corporate advisory and financial services work, corporate crime and international human rights as well as defamation, privacy, confidence, malicious falsehood, contempt and related media law cases. His extensive experience in practice is underpinned by a parallel career in politics and as one of the Government’s two Law Officers: he served as an MP from 1992 until 2017 and was HM Solicitor General from 2010 to 2012 when he was knighted. Appointed a Privy Counsellor in 2015, he is now in the House of Lords, most recently proposing amendments to the government’s Failure to Prevent Fraud offence under the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Bill.

Sir David Green CB KC

Sir David was the director of the Serious Fraud Office for six years between April 2012 to April 2018. In that role he raised the profile of the Serious Fraud Office and oversaw significant criminal investigations and prosecutions, making use of the Bribery Act and Deferred Prosecution Agreements. He served as director of the central fraud group at the Crown Prosecution Service (2010 – 2011) and director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (November 2004 – 2010). Prior to that he was a barrister in private practice for 25 years.

He was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court and Queen’s Counsel in 2000.

Frances Coulson

Head of Insolvency & Restructuring at Wedlake Bell LLP following a merger in 2021 with her former firm Moon Beever, specialising in personal and corporate insolvency, in particular contentious cases involving fraud and injunctive reliefs; former president of R3, now chair of its fraud group and member of its policy group; special constable, National Crime Agency.

Patrick Rappo

Patrick’s practice focuses on corporate and white-collar crime – covering international bribery, corruption, money laundering, fraud, and sanctions –working across high-risk sectors and high-risk jurisdictions. He has a keen interest in preventative measures and incentivising compliance. He also has a focus on human rights, ESG, AI, and big data.

Prior to moving into private practice, Patrick was Joint Head of the Bribery and Corruption divisions at the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). He has significant experience of corporate self-reporting, acting as the SFO’s point of contact for all such reports, was involved in the changes to the SFO’s self-reporting processes, and helped introduce deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) in the United Kingdom.

Arun Chauhan

Arun is a lawyer specialising in disputes and compliance issues arising from fraud and financial crime. In 2016 he founded the award winning law firm Tenet, the only niche law firm in its field outside of London. Arun is a frequent commentator in the media and at conferences on a range of fraud subjects, including ethics, integrity, investigations of insider fraud, consumer banking and wider consumer fraud risks.

David Bacon

Senior editor, Thomson Reuters Practical Law, Business Crime and Investigations, specialising in anti-money laundering, bribery and corruption, fraud and criminal evidence;  Visiting lecturer, BPP University, teaching law at postgraduate level. Formally a case manager at the Serious Fraud Office and a solicitor in private practice.

Maria Cronin

Maria advises corporates and individuals on all aspects of business crime. Her practice focuses on white collar cases with an international and political dimension. Maria represents high-profile clients subject to complex corruption, money laundering, insider dealing and tax investigations, providing strategic advice, including where there is underlying political motivation and potential abuse of a state’s criminal justice system. Maria advises on all aspects of extradition and acts for prominent individuals subject of Red Notices and/or diffusions on INTERPOL’s information systems. She has experience in complex internal investigations. Both as part of an internal investigation and separately, she advises companies on their compliance with the UK Bribery Act, the money laundering regulations, sanctions and export controls. Maria is former President of the Criminal Commission of the UIA (Union Internationale des Avocats) and former UK National President of the UIA. She sits on the Advisory Committee of the Fraud Advisory Panel. She regularly speaks on issues of corruption, money laundering, corporate liability and general financial crime. Maria previously worked at the European Commission and is a native French speaker, who also reads Russian and German.

Lee Fitzgerald

Lee Fitzgerald is the Fraud Risk Strategy Director for Barclays International and is responsible for end to end fraud management for Corporate Bank, Private Bank, Investment Bank, APAC region, Commercial Issuing, Merchant Acquiring and Barclays Consumer Bank Europe. Prior to Barclays, Lee was Head of Fraud for NatWest Corporate and Private Bank where she held numerous fraud roles within her career.

Jonathan Holmes

Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, specialising in fraud and integrity investigations, disputes and contentious contract work across a broad range of industries, sectors and jurisdictions including US, Europe, Hong Kong and South Korea; previously seconded to the FCA working on the investigation into PPI.

Laura Hough

Laura is Director of Trust & Ethics at the ICAEW. She is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner who has focused her career on counter fraud and anti-corruption work. She trained as a forensic accountant and has worked across private practice, the FCA, international charities, central government and professional bodies.

“The Fraud Advisory Panel is unique, bringing together so many people from different sectors and industries, all united in the fight against fraud. It is a pleasure to be part of such a dynamic team, bringing both the opportunity to contribute to combatting fraud, as well as the chance to learn from the many diverse perspectives the Panel convenes

Mike Levi

Michael Levi has been Professor of Criminology at Cardiff since 1991. His main work has been making sense of the linkages and differences between white-collar and organised crime and their public and private sector controls, intersecting with fraud, corruption, money laundering and terrorism locally and transnationally. He has major lifetime and other research prizes from the British, European and American Societies of Criminology, the lifetime Tackling Economic Crime Award in the UK 2019, and the UNODC/Al Thani Corruption Research and Education prize 2020.   His external honorary roles include membership of the Law Society’s Money Laundering Task Force, of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime and of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. His current and recent projects include A Public Health Approach to Fraud (https://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/fraud/); Fraud and its relationship to Pandemics and Economic Crises from 1850 to the Present; the Impact of technologies on criminal markets and transnational organised crime; and cyber-enabled fraud and money laundering projects.  He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute and of RAND Europe.

See further, http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/38041-levi-michael

Rachel Sexton

Rachel is a governance, risk and compliance consultant. She was formerly a Partner and the Head of the UK Ashurst Risk Advisory practice and a Partner at EY. She specialises in investigations and compliance related to fraud and financial crime. She has over 30 years & experience working with clients across a range of sectors. She has used the knowledge gained on investigations to work with her clients to remediate issues identified during investigations and strengthen compliance programmes and control frameworks. She is a US-qualified Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She has a BSc. (Hons.) in Business Administration and post-graduate Diplomas in Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime Prevention from the International Compliance Association.

Oliver Shaw

Detective Chief Superintendent, City of London Police; Head of Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB); operational lead for the Next Generation Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting and Analysis Service (FCCRAS).

Brendan Weekes

As an Associate Director in Evelyn Partners’ Forensic Services department, Brendan is part of a specialist team comprising accountants, investigators and computer forensics professionals.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2009 and specialises in forensic accounting. His experience also includes dispute resolution services, asset tracing and criminal defence.

Brendan’s experience covers many industry sectors including technology, media, financial services and the not-for-profit sector. He has worked internationally, having conducted investigations in the UK, Middle East and Eastern Europe.

He is also a Trustee director of the Fraud Advisory Panel, a leading counter fraud charity in the UK. Brendan regularly contributes to the Panel’s activities, including presenting on forensic accounting, fraud and fraud prevention.

Matthew Field, Head of Fraud Advisory Panel

Matthew was an investigator in law enforcement before moving to a strategic and counter fraud lead role in central government.

As Head of the Fraud Advisory Panel, Matthew is passionate about fraud prevention and believes collaboration and education are two of the most important tools at our disposal to drive change in the fight against economic crime.

Hope Sapey, Senior Executive

Hope joined the panel in early 2022 after 7 years as a supervisor in retail and completing her BMus Music. As the campaigns executive Hope collaborates with members and experts from across the fraud landscape to design and deliver events, programs, and campaigns that align with the Panels 3 communities: The business community; Charity Community and Future Counter Fraud Community. If you have an idea or a question about the work the Panel has going on you can contact hope at Hope.sapey@fraudadvisorypanel.org

Celia Hannah, Executive

Celia joined the Panel in March 2024, bringing over 5 years of experience in business and administrative management from within the hair and beauty sector. Celia supports the Panel’s day-to-day operations and actively engages with our membership and supporters.

Celia enjoys working at the Panel and being part of a professional community dedicated to tackling fraud, especially being involved with the FCFC to drive generational change. For any queries regarding your membership please do not hesitate to contact Celia at Celia.hannah@fraudadvisorypanel.org.