Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) adviser Dr Sam Sittlington yesterday told investigators and prosecutors that too much time is being wasted on preparing criminal case files, which fail to hold up in court.
“It’s a very important area of work and we see a lot of cases getting to court and failing at court. We’ve seen failings when the file would go to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions]. We don’t want files to come back to us with amendments and corrections. We want one file, one time, going to the DPP and that file being referred to charges. It’s a lot of time wasting and we don’t need that,” Sittlington said as he opened a training session aimed at assisting prosecutors and investigators in preparing files for anti-money laundering and assets recovery cases.
The opening was held yesterday at the Police Officers’ Training Academy, where three days of training will be conducted by experts from the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) that is linked to the Regional Security System (RSS), based in Barbados.
