Regulatory & Criminal Investigations Group

Law firm Irwin Mitchell has added to its renowned Regulatory & Criminal Investigations Group (RCG) by appointing a new solicitor to work at the Sheffield and Manchester offices after seeing a recent rise in the number of instructions.

Riad Ahmed joins Irwin Mitchell from Cartwright King Solicitors as a specialist in business defence and fraud cases with extensive experience in defending high value fraud prosecutions nationally.

Paul Haycock, Associate Director of Irwin Mitchell’s RCG team, said: “Riad has a wide range of experience working on serious and complex criminal prosecutions and we are delighted he has joined the team. He has all the attributes we look for to ensure our clients continue to get the best legal advice and support.”

The Irwin Mitchell RCG team has a strong reputation for defending complicated criminal investigations and prosecutions and is currently handling a caseload where the fraud is alleged to exceed £150m.

Irwin Mitchell has seen a rise in the number of instructions to defend in criminal fraud cases recently, including include those brought by HM Revenue and Customs, the Fraud Prosecution Teams of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office.

Haycock said: “Businesses are being much more careful and vigilant over their financial management and are more aware of their spending than ever before, leading to an increase in the amount of fraudulent activity being discovered.

“Our experience also suggests that in harder economic times more people have been 'tempted' to enter into fraudulent activity.  This will have a knock-on effect in a couple of years as it usually takes this long for fraud to be uncovered, investigated and prosecuted.”