Serious Fraud Office abandons G4S fraud trial

Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has abandoned a trial against three former G4S executives it had accused of defrauding the Ministry of Justice over a prisoner- tagging contract.

Richard Morris, Mark Preston and James Jardine were due to face trial in 2024.

They were charged with seven offences of fraud in relation to alleged false representations made to the Ministry of Justice between 2009 and 2012.

But the prosecutor said the SFO was offering no evidence against them.

The three all worked in the security company’s care and justice business. 

They had been due to face trial next year – 10 years after the SFO began its investigation.

In 2020, the SFO and G4S agreed a £44m deal to settle three fraud offences between 2011 and 2012 where G4S accepted responsibility for deceiving the Government about the true extent of profits it was earning on a prisoner-tagging contract, including for tagging offenders who had died.