Serious Fraud Office reviews 20 cases after issues with evidence software

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has said it is reviewing the integrity of around 20 cases following the collapse of a decade-long bribery investigation.

The SFO dropped its prosecution against former executives of London Mining after its case was impacted by problems with its evidence review software.

On Thursday, it said it found issues related to its document discovery system Autonomy used for the investigation and other cases.

The issue relates “how some digital container files were expanded on our system, meaning some items may not have been available for review on the platform”.

It said this has affected around 20 cases, although one of these has already been resolved with no evidence that important evidence has been missed.

However, it said steps are being taken to review the other cases.

In a statement, the SFO said: “We take our obligations as a responsible prosecutor very seriously and we recognise that, although we have not seen any evidence of this, we need to satisfy ourselves that no relevant and disclosable material was missed.

“This issue does not affect our current e-discovery system.”

It revealed the issue after it said in a hearing at Southwark Crown Court that its prosecutors would offer no evidence against the three former bosses at London Mining.

The former London-listed mining firm went into administration in 2014 amid an Ebola outbreak and weak metal prices.

The SFO then launched an investigation into potential bribery in 2016.

On Thursday, the defendants, including former London Mining chief executive Graeme Hossie, were acquitted with no findings of wrongdoing.

Mr Hossie said: “I am delighted that after more than a decade, the prosecution has offered no evidence and the court has acquitted us.

“The length of the process imposed a significant professional and personal burden, including on my family.”

Steven Bird, a defence solicitor from Hodge Jones & Allen representing Mr Hossie, said: “It has been devastating for my client to live under the cloud of these proceedings for the past 10 years during which time he has steadfastly maintained his innocence of the allegations.

“The investigation and proceedings that followed have incurred huge costs to the public purse and to the defendants both financially and emotionally.”