The fourth Tackling Economic Crime Awards (TECAs) event took place at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square on Monday 14 November 2022.
Economic crime professionals gathered to celebrate the very best from across the sector with dinner and a presentation event.
TECAs founder Professor Martin Gill said: “Each year the calibre of the nominations exceeds expectations and made the job of selecting the winners particularly challenging for the 17-strong economic crime experts you made up the judging panel – all nominated by the leading associations. All those that were selected as finalists and winners demonstrated that they really are the absolute best in tackling all areas of economic crime and should feel extremely proud.”
Lifetime Achievement Award
One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Michael Beattie. He is widely accepted as the foremost authority on financial crime and asset recovery. He ran the East Midlands Regional Asset Recovery Team, initiating successful campaigns to seize criminal funds (such as “too much bling, give us a ring!”) recognised in both local and national media.
In 2015, he became National Coordinator, driving transformational changes on behalf of NPCC to improve police-led financial investigations and asset recovery. His achievements include drastically improving the police use and analysis of Suspicious Activity Reports, and creating a national network of intelligence officers, exploiting opportunities to seize and restrain criminal assets; acting as key police advisor for the recent FATF report, which received a positive evaluation; establishing a network of Civil Recovery Teams with CPS lawyers and police investigators, which aims to recover £10m of assets this year; and establishing the Asset Confiscation Enforcement Teams that since 2015 have recovered over £200m worth of assets.
TECAs Award Winners 2022:
Outstanding Manager or Director
Gareth Davies – Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty
Outstanding Team
Tech-Enabled Threats Team – HMRC
Outstanding Policing Initiative
Alan Penfold – Asset Confiscation Enforcement Team (ACE) – Eastern Region Special Operations Unit
Outstanding Performance in Tackling Money Laundering
Graham Hughes & Lynne James – Eastern Region Special Operations Unit
Outstanding Prevention Initiative
Enhanced Checking Service – DWP
Outstanding Partnership
Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and Intellectual Property Office
Outstanding Training Initiative
Professional Certificate in Fraud Prevention Training – Cifas and City of London Police
Outstanding New Product or Technology
trueCall SIM
Outstanding Investigator
Lucy Gardiner – Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty
Outstanding Tackling Economic Crime Professional
Dr Elisabeth Carter – Kingston University
Outstanding Young Professional
Gareth Davies – Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty
Lifetime Achievement
Mick Beattie
Comments from our winners:
An incredible honour to be awarded Outstanding Tackling Economic Crime Professional 2022 amongst the finalists who are such genuinely inspiring and dedicated colleagues across the tackling economic crime sphere. I look forward to publishing more research and continue working in partnership across all sectors to tackle the many guises of fraud, the negative perceptions of fraud victims, making protect messaging more effective, and navigating the changing landscape of regulations in 2023 and beyond. Thank you to all of the judges for their considerable time in judging a bumper year for nominations across many categories, and to the TECAs for providing the gold standard in recognising those involved in tackling different areas of economic crime.
Dr Elisabeth Carter, Outstanding Tackling Economic Crime Professional
The TECAs awards are widely recognised as the gold standard, so we are delighted to have been honoured in this way.
Steve Smith, Outstanding New Product or Technology
We are delighted that the work of our dedicated Learning Team has been recognised with this prestigious award. Our Professional Certificate in Fraud Prevention provides learners with the practical skills and knowledge to embark on, or accelerate a career in fraud prevention and investigation.
With its extensive knowledge and sector experience, City of London Police (CoLP) identified our course as the only one that meets their high-quality expectations for police forces across England and Wales. We are pleased that we have recently been awarded the contract to continue delivering this course over the next year, and look forward to working with Protect officers, CoLP and the Regional Organised Crime Units.
Our TECA award will ensure that we continue to be recognised for our innovative and rigorous approach to fraud awareness, helping us to continue leading the fight against fraud by sharing our market-leading learning with the next generation of counter-fraud specialists.
Mike Haley, CEO – Cifas, Outstanding Training Initiative
What a shock it was to win, but it is with immense pride that I say what an honour to receive the award having been selected by such a distinguished judging panel and I am immensely grateful to Martin, the judges, sponsors and colleagues.
Mick Beattie, Lifetime Achievement Award
The TECAs supported charity is PTSD Resolution, with guests at the London event making donations to assist in providing therapy for the mental welfare of Forces’ Veterans, Reservists and their families.
The event organisers would like to thank all those who have helped to make the fourth TECAs event such a success including: all the supporting associations and judges; sponsors – SelectaPTT (headline sponsor); Cifas, Experian, McLarens, The Security Event, International Security Expo (category sponsors); and media partners – Security Matters and The Investigator.