James specialises in banking and financial services litigation and his practice centres on disputes which generate reputational threat against a highly regulated backdrop. Managing the consequential litigation arising from material fraud events has been a passion for James and he often trains organisations on how to apply the lessons learned for better preparedness. James is also a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel and is delighted to bring his breadth of perspective and experience to support the development of the South West Fraud Forum.

Paul heads the Government’s Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) for the South West of England. MaPS is tasked with improving the financial wellbeing of people across the UK and advises HM Treasury on policy matters such as debt advice, financial capability and consumer protection. Paul is one of the founders of the South West Fraud Forum and became involved due to the significant role MaPS plays in fighting pensions fraud.

Helen has been involved in providing expert evidence in court on fraud and financial irregularities for over 20 years including during two secondments to the Serious Fraud Office. Helen became involved with the South West Fraud Forum because of her interest in education and prevention which, in her experience, is often overlooked.

Adam has particular expertise in fraud, asset recovery and injunctive applications to help clients with the recovery
of assets, in particular money, intellectual property, data and confidential information. Adam has developed a reputation for successfully pursuing defendants arising from complex fraud nationally and internationally. This has
involved securing a number of injunctions on behalf of his clients, including freezing, doorsteps, Norwich Pharmacal
and search and delivery up orders. He is also a member and director of the Midlands Fraud Forum.

Marc has over 20 years’ policing experience in Economic Crime at both operational and strategic levels. He is keen to support the South West Fraud Forum in bridging the gap between the public and private sector approaches to tackling fraud and money laundering. In particular, he is striving to promote an enhanced service to fraud victims using multi-agency safeguarding measures and regulatory powers.

A tenant of Citadel Chambers since 2003 and Co-Founder of Synalogik Innovative Solutions, Daniel specialises in the prosecution of all grave criminal offences. Appointed to the AG’s unified list and a Grade 4 specialist fraud prosecutor.

In addition to his work in the criminal sector, Daniel sits on sports tribunals for a variety of Governing bodies, including the RFU, World Rugby & Sport Resolutions.

In 2018, Daniel Co-Founded Synalogik with experts from the intelligence and policing community. Synalogik provide data aggregation, automation and risk identification software solutions for compliance and fraud investigations. At Synalogik, Daniel holds the role of Chief Commercial Officer.

Ben is a Legal Director in the Commercial Litigation team at VWV solicitors. Ben regularly advises clients in relation to bringing or defending allegations of civil fraud and the recovery of misappropriated assets. Ben has acted on complex fraud matters including successfully acting for a former director of Bonhams who was alleged to have been involved in a fraudulent conspiracy (involving the most expensive car ever sold at auction at the time) and successfully defending a Luxembourg based investment company accused of defrauding former Ferrari chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, and family. As a passionate advocate of assisting organisations in reducing their fraud risk, Ben regularly speaks at events and webinars in this regard.

Jonathan is a former solicitor who was struck off the solicitor’s roll in 2010 and subsequently served six years of a twelve-year prison sentence for his facilitating role in a multi-million-pound mortgage and bank fraud. He was released from prison in June 2020. Whilst resident at HMP Parc, Bridgend, Jonathan completed an MSc (Distinction) in Counter Fraud and Counter Corruption Studies with Portsmouth University before commencing and completing in June 2023 a PhD in financial fraud and regulation at Cardiff University where he was supervised by globally recognized white collar crime academic, Mike Levi.

Jonathan is a published academic and has presented widely, both at home and internationally, at numerous academic, counter fraud conferences, masterclasses and seminars on fraud reduction strategies, financial crime, failure to prevent, ethical slippage, governance, regulation and compliance and the facilitating role of professional enablers in financial crime. Audiences, stakeholders, and partners have included the UNODC, the UK Home Office, Cabinet Office, the Serious Fraud Office, the Financial Conduct Authority, Solicitors Regulation Authority, International Compliance Association, the Dutch Ministry for Justice and Security and multiple UK banks and building societies. Jonathan is founder of IN8consulting.com, a financial crime advisory business and is a Lecturer in Law at UWE, Bristol where he undertakes research in criminal justice and white-collar crime and where he teaches on Financial Crime.

Peter Williams is a former Gwent Police officer who retired in 2016 after a 25 year policing career with 20 years in the C.I.D.. He then joined the Civil Service, initially working with the Office for National Statistics before moving to the Insolvency Service in 2018. Peter first served as an Investigator within the Official Receiver Services, later progressing into criminal investigation. He now leads the Criminal Investigations team at the Cardiff Office, where he oversees complex casework and provides strategic direction to the unit.

Dr Sam Mapston is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of the West of England. Her research interests lie in the law of financial crime, particularly, the law relating to money laundering, fraud, and corporate criminal liability. Sam has published her research in several leading law journals, including the Criminal Law Review and Journal of Business Law. She is a Steering Group Member of the South West Fraud Forum and the Financial Fraud Awareness Campaign, an Advisory Board Member with the Journal of Economic Criminology for Elsevier and a Co-Editor of the Law of Financial Crime Series for Routledge.