PREFACE

My aim in writing this book is to provide a thorough, practical, and straightforward guide to this complex area of law. This book deals with the development of the criminal insider dealing regime (Part V of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (CJA)), and offers an analysis of the current law and a guide to the issues of practice and procedure that arise in such cases. It also deals similarly with the civil market abuse regime contained in Part VIII of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), although it is deliberately confined to the insider dealing types of behaviour which amount to market abuse contained in s 118(2)(4) of FSMA, rather than the four other ways in which market abuse can be committed. This ensures that the book remains true to its purposeto provide a thorough yet focused treatment of insider dealing law as it arises in the criminal and civil context.

Historically, insider dealing prosecutions and market abuse proceedings relating to insider dealing type conduct, have been few and far between. This was due to the complexity of the law, the difficulty of the issues and the negligible success rate. In 2000, the responsibility for taking action in respect of insider dealing was given to the newly created Financial Services Authority (FSA) which was given the power to bring prosecutions for the criminal offence, or bring civil proceedings for market abuse. However, it was not until the arrival of Margaret Cole as Director of the FSAs Enforcement Division in 2005 that the FSA (now the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA) began instituting criminal insider dealing prosecutions and civil market abuse proceedings in earnest. At this time, I had recently commenced employment in the FSAs Enforcement Division as a Technical Specialist and In-House Counsel, where for the next six years I advised on and acted in a number of these cases for the FSA. What was striking during this period, was how little jurisprudence and legal text or reference material there was on this subject. A good deal of the jurisprudence that now exists was created during this time.

Since my return to private practice at Serjeants Inn Chambers in 2011, I have had the privilege to see these cases from both sides. The reality is that not only are insider dealing and market abuse cases increasing in number, they are also increasingly wide-ranging and increasingly serious. What this means is that ever larger numbers of practitioners, firms, and individuals are coming into contact with insider dealing investigations and proceedings, either as advisers, suspects, employers of suspects, subjects, defendants, applicants, or witnesses. This book aims to provide these persons, the lawyers, and compliance specialists who advise them and the judges and tribunal panel members who try them, with a route map through the practice and procedure of an insider dealing investigation and prosecution or civil action for market abuse. In so doing, I have sought to provide a comprehensive guide to insider dealing legislationboth criminal and civilcombined with a practical approach to the topic and to identify the challenges for both sides that are inherent in these cases. In short, what I have aimed to do is write the text book that I would have liked to have read seven years ago and had by my side during the intervening years.