New legislation to speed up prosecutions of white-collar crime has been published by the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.
The Criminal Justice Bill 2011, which will come before the Dáil next Wednesday, will grant new powers to the judiciary to impose jail sentences of up to five years on those who fail to disclose or pass on information relevant to an investigation.
The Bill specifically targets problems associated with complex investigations in the areas of banking, finance and company law, and those associated with money laundering and cybercrime.
The new measures provide for the 24-hour period of detention by gardaí for serious offences to be broken up into segments.
The legislations allows for detainees to be released and their detention suspended so that further investigations can be conducted during the suspension period.
The Bill also contains measures relating to how documents are to be produced to the gardaí in an effort to combat the practice of “snowing” whereby investigators are swamped with masses of documentation.
The enormous volume of documentation involved in several recent high-profile cases are understood to have slowed investigations considerably.
The Bill also gives gardaí powers to seek court orders compelling the supplier of the material to identify and categorise it as appropriate.
The measures also seek to prevent unnecessary delays in investigations arising from claims of legal privilege by permitting investigators to have recourse to the courts to challenge the claim of privilege.
The Bill was made a priority by the Government to be delivered within the first 100 days of taking office.
Mr Shatter said the main purpose of the Bill was to facilitate the more effective investigation of white collar crime and to reduce associated delays.
“The proposals in the Bill are based on the experiences of those involved in investigations and prosecutions of these types of offences, and in particular on the experiences of those involved in current investigations.”
“While the complexities of financial crime are challenging for investigators and for prosecutors, this Government is committed to restoring the faith of the people in our legal system by ensuring that action is taken to end the perception of impunity for the white collar criminal,” he said.
