The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is planning to clamp down on fraudulent activity before cases reach the courts, its director Richard Alderman said this week.

In one of his first public speeches since taking the reins of the office earlier this year, Alderman said the SFO must educate businesses on detecting and preventing fraud because it will become harder to prosecute in the future.

At present, the SFO is not using the expertise of its own investigators and lawyers to educate the public, he told the Back to the future: revitalising the SFO event at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He said his ambition is to create a body powerful enough to deter fraudsters. He would consider ‘innovative approaches to punishing and deterring’.

When cases do go to court, Alderman said he wants the SFO to use new legislative powers to increase the rate of ­convictions – especially in the most complex cases.

David Kirk, director of the Fraud Prosecution Service, urged the SFO to make it common practice to get independent counsel’s opinion on the likelihood of a case succeeding. He predicted that the fallout from the current economic turmoil would be ‘more of a regulatory issue than a criminal issue’.

Jessica de Grazia, author of a critical review of the SFO, ­commissioned by the Attorney General, maintained that the office needs to adopt a ‘public service’ rather than ‘civil service’ mentality, in line with US prosecutors’ offices. She also said the ownership of cases needs to rest solely with the SFO, rather than with external lawyers.