Case Comment: R v Rollins [2009] EWCA Crim 1941 (09 October 2009)
The issue determined in these appeals was the scope of the Financial Services Authority’s power to prosecute. The FSA brought charges against the appellant for money laundering offences contrary to sections 327 and 328 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 . The appellant (and another) sought to argue that the FSA power of prosecution was limited to the offences set out in sections 401 and 402 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which do not include offences under POCA 2002.
The FSA replied that sections 401 and 402 did not limit their prosecution powers, but rather limited everyone else’s power to prosecute insider trading. In particular, it said, as a body corporate with legal personality it has a common law power to prosecute in respect of other offences.
Both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have now upheld the FSA’s position. The FSA does have the power to prosecute offences beyond those referred to in sections 401 and 402 of FSMA 2000 and, in particular, it has the power to prosecute the appellants for offences contrary to sections 327 and 328 of POCA 2002.
What this case changes, more than anything, is the FSA’s prospects of sharing the cash bonanza which other prosecuting agencies have been enjoying under POCA.


As we previously reported 
Baroness Hale of Richmond makes a very unconventional Justice. She is the first and only woman in the Supreme Court (and as such, the most senior female judge in the United Kingdom); the Court’s only family law specialist; the first High Court judge to be promoted from academia; and a regular and passionate speaker about issues such as feminism, equality and human rights – qualities which have made her one of the Court’s most popular and well known figures. 



