Former law chief claims bank fraud is worse than terrorism
A FORMER Director of Public Prosecutions lambasted Labour's record on tackling financial crime today as he declared that fraudulent bankers are more of a danger to society than terrorists.
Sir Ken Macdonald said that Britain's systems for regulating markets and for prosecuting market crime had broken down.
He said: "If you mug someone in the street and you are caught, the chances are that you will go to prison. In recent years, mugging someone out of their savings or their pension would probably earn you a yacht."
In his first major announcement since leaving office last year, Sir Ken called for tougher regulation and a single, powerful authority to replace the "failed" Financial Services Authority and the "struggling" Serious Fraud Office.
His comments come as financial regulators in the United States charged Allen Stanford, the billionaire cricket impresario, with masterminding a $9.2 billion fraud - and after Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud.
Tory leader David Cameron has in recent weeks claimed that the FSA has failed to match up to the American regulators' tough action on City fraud.
In an article for The Times, Sir Ken said there should be more laws to "confront the clever people who have done their best to steal our economy".
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