Private prosecutions: navigate with care

Private prosecutions are on the rise in England and Wales but they often entail a complexity not found in public prosecutions or civil proceedings, which needs to be appreciated and managed from the outset. Hannah Laming and Chris Gribbin of Peters & Peters draw on the firm’s experience of bringing a successful private prosecution against Ketan Somaia at the Old Bailey in 2014, which saw him convicted of nine counts of obtaining money transfers by deception and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, to outline some of the challenges and how to address them.