SWFF’s Autumn Conference 2025 Blog
The South West Fraud Forum 2025 Autumn Conference featured a diverse range of talks from dynamic speakers and organisations, each highlighting the key priorities in the fight against fraud, in particular, shining a light upon “Fraud in Sport”.
We were delighted to hear from five distinguished speakers:
Arthur Whitehead– Operations Manager of the NCA’s International Crime Bureau
Kevin Read – Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service
Mark Stephens – Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service
Daniel White – Criminal and Sports Law Barrister at Citadel Chambers
Nick Oliver – Intelligence Manager at the Gambling Commission
Arthur Whitehead kicked off the Autumn Conference with an in-depth look at the NCA’s approach to tackling serious and organised crime in sport including: Project Tachygenic. The talk emphasised the creativity and complexity of criminals’ use of companies and franchises associated with sports to launder funds and including trade-based money laundering within the transfer market.
Kevin Read joined us from the Insolvency Service to share just a fraction of the work they have been doing to fight fraud, offering a detailed overview of the regulatory action taken against Bentley Global (UK) Ltd, a company marketed as an investment vehicle which claimed to use a betting algorithm to place bets and win high returns for investors. Kevin reminded SWFF members that whilst the Insolvency Service often received cases at a late stage, there will be indicators of fraud much earlier in the lifecycle. Mark Stephens shared a further glimpse of the Insolvency Service’s approach to fighting fraud from the criminal enforcement perspective, highlighting the ongoing pursuit of fraudsters who abused the Government’s Bounce Back Loan scheme introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Daniel White from Citadel Chambers built upon the frequency and severity of fraud in sport highlighting that it is not a new phenomenon (noting the 1915 Good Friday Betting Scandal), raising the question: what are (the best) National Governing Bodies doing to combat this? Ensuring Regulations are sufficiently updated and transparent to make them robust; publicising wins; and developing channels for communication with the public sector and criminal investigations teams (which is what we, at the SWFF strive to do) were just a few of the insightful answers provided.
Nick Oliver gave a comprehensive overview of how the Sports Betting Intelligence Unit, (which acts as a centralised intelligence hub between gambling regulators, betting operators, sport governing bodies and law enforcement) tackles fraud in relation to sports betting – which ranges from opportunistic breaches of rules to serious organised match/spot fixing. This highlighted the important behind-the-scenes preventative work being carried out by the Gambling Commission and major event sporting bodies to mitigate the fraud risks associated with betting.
Each speaker offered their own distinct views on effective strategies for staying ahead of constantly evolving fraudulent tactics and shared practical insights/ solutions to address this critical challenge which is harms sport, participants and wider society.
Additionally, we had the pleasure of hearing from representatives of the 2025 Autumn Conference’s sponsors:
Michael Taylor – Managing Director of i-Lit Support and Richard Covell – Director of Client Engagement at i-Lit Support
Benjamin Fitzmaurice – International Business, Commercial IP, Insolvency and Sports Law Barrister at Forum Chambers
Michael Taylor and Richard Covell from i-Lit Support showed how their GenAI software can streamline the process of reading and prioritisation of documents in litigation, saving professionals hours of time and making the pursuit of fraud cases -whether through criminal, civil or regulatory enforcement – more viable.
Benjamin Fitzmaurice provided a captivating insight into the implications and consequences of taking performance-enhancing drugs both for the ‘doping’ athlete and ‘victim’ athletes who may miss the top-place finishes. The tortious causes of action for the victim athlete (e.g. deceit, conspiracy to injure by unlawful means and dishonest assistance) were helpful reminders of how the civil law provides for a vast range of potential remedies.
We sincerely thank all our speakers for their valuable contributions in making the day both insightful and successful. To learn more about sponsoring future events, please contact us at info@swff.org.uk
