Beltrami & Company Criminal Law & Glasgow Solicitors Blog

A recent study by the Institute for Economics and Peace reveals that, while the UK is 11% less violent than a decade ago, Glasgow is the least peaceful of all the major urban areas, with London ranked as the second most violent.

The European Commission has published its annual report on the implementation of the EU's Internal Security Strategy (ISS), which highlights areas under each of the objectives of the strategy (2011-2014) where Member States and EU agencies should pay particular attention.

Scotland is taking vital steps towards tackling the problem of human trafficking, a new report by EHRC Scotland shows, with ‘a renewed impetus for action.’

In a case brought by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Paul Milsom, a senior equities trader, was this week sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to two years imprisonment for disclosing inside information. A confiscation order was also made in the sum of £245,000.

A bankrupt who acted as a shadow director was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment at Hull Crown Court earlier this week.

Following a nine-day trial, an English QC has been found guilty of a charge of cheating the public revenue between 1st June 1999 and 24th September 2011.

The level of fraud in the UK may have dropped by a third over the past year, but according to a new report by accountants BDO LLP, the amount of tax fraud hardly fell at all. It now accounts for almost half (44%) of all fraud reported in the UK.

The Court of Appeal in England this week ruled that the automatic disclosure of all convictions and cautions on CRB checks, regardless of their relevance to the job in question, is disproportionate – and therefore incompatible with the right to private life under article 8 of the Human Rights Act.

A Dundee man has been sentenced to nine years imprisonment, after being convicted of three charges of being knowingly involved in the fraudulent evasion of VAT and two charges of money laundering, occurring between 2002 and 2004.

The Scottish Government is consulting on new proposals for safeguards to the criminal justice system, after reviewing responses to the Carloway consultation.

Gangs that lure victims to the UK and then exploit them for sex, labour and domestic slavery are being targeted following action by the government.

A new scheme to text witnesses to remind them to attend court has been rolled out across Scotland by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, following a successful pilot of the scheme at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

The Law Societies of Scotland, England and Wales and of Northern Ireland have issued a call for a full and open consultation on whether the UK should opt-out of over 130 EU criminal justice measures, including the European Arrest Warrant.

Scotland's Chief Statistician has published details on reconviction rates in Scotland for the 2009-10 offender cohort.

In a recent case, my client received a summons at the beginning of the year containing five charges, four of which were police assaults.

Victims of crime could have the right to make a pre-recorded oral statement before sentencing to tell the court how a crime has affected them, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said.

The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) has disrupted the activities of more serious organised crime groups than ever before as a result of a range of new tactics used in the last year.

The SCDEA disrupted serious organised crime groups on 109 occasions, twice as many as last year, with 42 classed as high level resulting in the most significant impact to the criminals and their groups.

The figure is highlighted as part of the SCDEA’s annual report for 2011-12. Other key figures from the report include:

Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2011-12. The publication presents statistics on crimes and offences recorded and cleared up by the eight Scottish police forces in 2011-12.

The figures show that the total number of crimes recorded by the police decreased by 3% between 2010-11 and 2011-12.  In 2011-12, the Scottish police recorded 314,186 crimes, 9,061 fewer crimes than in 2010-11.

The main findings include:

The UN Human Rights Council has issued the UK’s latest human rights “report card.” Sixty-one countries commended the UK’s ongoing commitment to human rights but made recommendations for improvements, reports the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The UN’s 132 recommendations encourage the UK to strengthen human rights protection for vulnerable individuals. The UN also recommends that the rights set out in the Equality Act, the Human Rights Act and international human rights laws are preserved. It notes that the right balance must be found between security and people’s basic rights, for example in the areas of stop and search, counter-terrorism and migration policy.

According to the Scottish Human Rights Commission, recommendations from other UN member states also included that the UK: