Skip to main content
School of Law

A one-day workshop on 'Organised Crime in the UK: New Challenges?'

19 May 2015

Time: 1:00am
Venue: Lecture Theatre, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, 67-69 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3JB

Organised crime manifests itself in different forms and guises from street drug gangs to shell companies. Some organised crime is purely local and contained within a confined national or even much smaller environment; other types are international and link countries from around the globe. Fighting organised crime today therefore means police need to distinguish different types and be equipped with the means and resources to counter very different kinds of threats. This workshop focuses on organised crime in the UK and, in particular, how it affects the UK, and seeks to address whether law enforcement agencies are able to both distinguish different types of organised crime as they exist today and the challenges involved in countering them effectively. The social, economic and political forms and effects of organised crime are assessed, in particular by investigating the potential social costs, economic losses and political partnerships that might affect British citizens.

The workshop is structured around two sessions focusing first on the vulnerabilities of the UK to organised crime and second on how organised crime groups, native, traditional and non-traditional, function in the UK. The morning session will focus on the economic vulnerabilities (money laundering activities and counter money laundering policies), and the afternoon session will focus on more general vulnerabilities (drug trafficking, human trafficking, counterfeit goods and gangs).

This event is organised by the Criminal Justice Centre (CJC), Queen Mary University of London, and the Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies, University of Bath.

Programme

Session 1: 9.30-11.00
Money Laundering in the UK

  • 'Organised Crime in the UK: Pandemic, Disease or Minor Illness?'
    Rob McCusker (Centre for Fraud and Financial Crime, Teeside University)
  • ‘Money Laundering in the UK’
    Don Randall (Bank of England, London)
  • 'The Financial Nexus: Terrorism and Organised Crime in the UK'
    Neil Bennett (Formerly of the National Terrorist Financing Investigation Unit (NTFIU), Scotland Yard)

11.00-11.30: Coffee/Tea

Session 2: 11.30-13.00
Tackling Money Laundering

  • ‘Money Laundering in the UK – Understanding and Combatting the Problem’
    Brian Ludlow (NCA)
  • ‘Anti-Money Laundering – A Game Worth the Candle?’
    Kenneth Murray (Head of Forensic Accounting, Police Scotland)
  • 'Money Laundering: Is the UK Leading International Combat Efforts?'
    Inês Sofia de Oliveira, Research Fellow, Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies (RUSI)

13.00-14.00: Lunch

Session 3: 14.00-15.30
Transnational Organised Crime in the UK

  • ‘Cyber Crime: Policing the Unorthodox’
    Andy Haslam (Sussex Police)
  • 'Human Trafficking: A Problem of Many Parts'
    Owain Johnstone (Oxford University)
  • 'Islamic Extremism and Gangs'
    Shaun Danquah (London Metropolitan University)

15.30-16.00: Coffee

Session 4: 16.00-17.30
Organised crime in the UK

  • ‘Drug Trafficking in the UK’
    Sujitha Trowsdale (NCA, Firearms and Gangs)
  • 'Turkish-Kurdish Organised Crime in the UK'
    Daniel Silverstone (London Metropolitan University)
  • 'The Illicit Trade in Tobacco, Alcohol and Pharmaceuticals in the UK'
    Sasha Jesperson (RUSI)

Speakers

  • Daniel Silverstone, is a Principal Lecturer Criminology at London Metropolitan University, London.
  • Sasha Jesperson, Research Analyst, RUSI, London
  • Owain Johnstone is a DPhil candidate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University
  • Rob McCusker is the Director of the Centre for Fraud and Financial Crime and Reader in Fraud and Financial Crime within Teesside University Business School.
  • Kenneth Murray, Head of Forensic Accounting, Police Scotland.
  • Inês Sofia de Oliveira, Research Fellow, Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies, (RUSI)
  • Neil Bennett, Expert in Terrorist Finance and its relationship with the wider Financial Crime environment, particularly Organised Crime. Formerly of the National Terrorist Financing Investigation Unit (NTFIU) and lately developed the UK Defence approach, policies and operations to Threat Finance.
  • Don Randall is the Cyber Ambassador for the Bank of England in a consultancy role. He is also a senior advisor to a law firm, cyber firm, cyber software firm and an International security company.
  • Shaun Danquah, London Metropolitan University, London
  • Andy Haslam is the head of Cyber Crime in Surrey and Sussex Police.

Directions

For directions please refer to the map.

How to book

Registration for this event is £10. To register, please visit the Queen Mary eshop.

Contact

For more information please contact lawevents@qmul.ac.uk.


Photography, video and audio recording

Please note that Department of Law events may be photographed or video and audio recorded. These materials will be used for internal and external promotional purposes only by Queen Mary University of London. If you object to appearing in the photographs, please let our photographer know on the day. Alternatively you can email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk in advance of the event that you are attending.

Back to top