The workshop concluded Friday with a series of recommendations to improve investigative and prosecutorial practice and possible amendment to the existing legal framework of Barbados.

The team, which was put together by the National Centre for State Courts (NCSC), includes two current and one former federal prosecutor, a senior special agent within the US Secret Service and NCSC Senior Programme Manager.

It is against this backdrop that he alluded to some of the fraud schemes that are trending including the schemes from West Africa, requesting advanced sums after the unsuspecting person receives a letter or the most recent fraudulent acts from Eastern European frauds, through the “skimming” of ATM machines.

Sir Marston further explained that a number of fraud offences fall under the Theft Act, which needs to be amended and “beefed up“.

“But there is still room for you to be innovative and to look a lot more closely at the sections of the Theft Act. A lot of the offences will be covered. What won’t be covered is Civil Forfeiture. We need Civil Forfeiture legislation badly,” he said.

He told the participants that they must be extremely careful about the way in which their evidence is presented. “Your objective is not only to investigate the frauds and the offences, but to ensure that the evidence which you obtain in that process will withstand scrutiny in the court as well.” (DATA COURTESY: Janelle Husbands, Barbados Advocate)