JFCU structure

At the Head of the JFCU is a Detective Inspector who reports directly to senior officers of the States of Jersey Police, with reporting to senior officers of JCIS carried out by the JFCU Senior Customs Officer.  The Head of the JFCU is Detective Inspector Dave Burmingham.

The JFCU is divided into 4 sections:

• the Intelligence Wing
• the Operational Wing
• the Drugs Trafficking Confiscation Wing
• the Administrative Wing

The Intelligence Wing

This Wing fulfils the JFCU’s role as the Island’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The Island requires an FIU in order to comply with Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CFT) Recommendations issued by the Financial Actions Task Force (FATF) – Recommendation 26 requiring that:
 
“countries should establish an FIU that serves as a national centre for the receiving, analysis and dissemination of SAR and other information regarding potential money laundering or terrorist financing.”

When SARs are received an initial assessment is made with respect to issues such as the granting of consent to proceed with transactions or continue with a relationship (such consent being required by local legislation in order to protect institutions against criminal charges of money laundering). Further analysis will determine how the intelligence is developed and this may include disseminating it on an intelligence basis, typically to an equivalent overseas FIU, where this is appropriate and permitted by legislation. Any such dissemination is done on a carefully sanitised basis and with strict conditions on how such information may be handled and subsequently processed.

In addition to dealing with SARs, the Intelligence Wing also receives and responds to requests for assistance (RFAs), typically from overseas FIUs on AML / CFT enquiries, as well as miscellaneous information reports (MIRs) from a variety of sources. As with the volume of SARs, the number of RFAs and MIRs remains steadily over recent years, with 827 being received in 2012. A total of 1747 SARs were processed by the Intelligence Wing in 2012.

SAR statistics and typologies

The Operational Wing

This Wing is responsible for carrying out criminal investigations into serious and complex fraud, often but not always originating from the development of SARs. The majority of the Wing’s work is undertaken in conjunction with the Law Officers’ Department (LOD), and powers exercisable by the Attorney General within the Investigation of Fraud (Jersey) Law 1991. 

Owing to the complexity of such investigations, including extensive overseas connections, these are very often protracted and significant in terms of the volumes of documentary and electronic evidence obtained. They are also expensive to resource for the Island, with the services of appointed lawyers, forensic accountants and other professionals being necessary.

Recent high profile convictions arising from investigations involving the Operational Wing in collaboration with the LOD include that of local accountant Peter Michel and Indian businessman Raj Bhojwani for a number of money laundering offences.

The Drugs Trafficking Confiscation Wing

This Wing is comprised of JCIS officers and undertakes the specialised investigations required to confiscate the realisable assets of those who have been convicted for drug trafficking offences. In addition, this Wing also oversees all cash seizures made under the Proceeds of Crime (Cash Seizure) (Jersey) Law 2008.

One important aspect of this Wing’s work is dealing with the responses to Liaison Notices which are sent out to the industry following an individual having been charged with a drug trafficking offence. Such responses very often quickly identify where illegitimate funds exist, or have existed, and are extremely valuable in assisting with restraining and later confiscating funds, as well as providing investigative avenues to help determine to what extent such individuals have benefited financially from their criminal activities.

This Wing has been instrumental in the confiscation of over £1.7 million of funds over the last 5 years.

The JFCU have a dedicated analyst who provides analytical support to the Intelligence, Operational and Drugs Trafficking Wings, as well as regular management information to JFCU supervisory officers.

The Administrative Wing

The receipt and processing of a large number of SARs and RFAs requires significant administrative support, in terms primarily of database maintenance and formal responses to SARs.  This is particularly important with the issue of consent – once an institution has formed a suspicion and reported it to the JFCU, a formal response on the issue of consent is often sought as a matter of urgency. The administrative function is therefore vital in ensuring such processes flow smoothly and that there are no unnecessary delays.

This wing also carries out other functions such as background checks and communication with outside agencies, thus enabling officers to concentrate on their own specific roles. They are also the first point of contact for generic approaches to the JFCU.

Joint working

Close working with the LOD has already been mentioned from an operational perspective.  Owing to the overseas connections of the majority of SARs and subsequent jurisdictional issues that may arise, there is also frequent dialogue between the Intelligence Wing and the LOD, with the LOD being the office in Jersey responsible for receiving and processing formal Letters of Request from overseas. The Drugs Trafficking Confiscation Wing also has frequent communication with the LOD owing to the need to formally restrain (via a “saisie judiciarie”) assets prior to any eventual confiscation. Such processes are conducted in the Royal Court upon application by the Attorney General and hence the involvement of the LOD.

There is a significant overlap with certain aspects of the regulatory work of the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) and there is a close working relationship between the JFSC and JFCU. The JFCU are in frequent communication with a large number of financial institutions locally who are regulated by the JFSC; while the vast majority cause no concern, there are at times issues which require the joint consideration of more than one agency and the JFCU, JFSC and LOD meet regularly on a tripartite basis to discuss matters of mutual interest.

Contact details

We are always keen and willing to offer advice and to answer queries, and are willing to meet face to face if this assists.

The JFCU is staffed during office hours, 08:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. You can contact us by Telephone on +44 (0) 1534 612250, Fax number 870537, or Email JFCUAdmin@jersey.pnn.police.uk