The Fraud Examiner

An Investigator’s Advice: Keep an Open Mind

November 2013 

ACFE Member Profile 

Jill Battley, CFE, serves as divisional director for Haymarket Risk Management, where she investigates fraud and implements measures to detect and prevent it. Previously, Battley was an agent at New Scotland Yard. She shared with us some of her experiences in the field.  

Q. What led you to this type of work? 

A. An inquiring mind coupled with a passion for probity. 

Q. You handled many complex, international investigations while at New Scotland Yard, including kidnapping cases. How often did your work involve fraud? And what types of fraud were most common?  

A. Fraud cuts across most serious criminality (such as) art and high value jewelry thefts, which are achieved through careful planning and pretext. The key to all investigations, but particularly fraud, is the initial information development and then looking at the best option to achieve the required outcome. Inevitably this is done by taking the investigation through stages ranging from undercover covert work to fully overt investigations.  

Q. Were there similarities in the way you would investigate kidnapping, ransom and/or blackmail cases – and fraud cases?  

A. There was commonality in just about every case in terms of pre-planning, research, surveillance, informant handling and ultimately in planning and coordinating the confrontation of the perpetrators. Similarly, all these cases end up in an interview scenario, the difference being that in complex fraud cases the perpetrators were often more likely to come clean when confronted with incontrovertible evidence than your average armed robber.