Law360: Phoenix Group and Schroders have announced plans to invest as much as £20bn of pension money into private markets over the next decade in line with wider industry commitments to direct retirement savings capital towards boosting the UK economy.

Law360, London: A London court ruled on12 January 2026 that the liquidators of a property company can recover just over £2.1m from a City law firm after it found a partner had ignored obvious red flags of a client involved in fraud.

The City of Edinburgh Council has announced that its Trading Standards Team has seized an estimated 58,000 counterfeit football jerseys and kits intended for distribution during the the FIFA World Cup 2026 following a series of intelligence-led operations conducted with Police Scotland and the National Trading Standards Intellectual Property Team. The council states that the seizure, estimated to be one of the largest of its kind in the UK, involved counterfeit goods weighing more than nine tonnes and valued at over £5 million. The counterfeit shirts will be securely recycled after verification by brand holders, while investigations into their source and supply routes continue.

Construction analysis: The City of London Law Society (CLLS) has published an updated 2024 edition of the Letter of Intent. In this analysis, we analyse the changes that have been made.

The City of London Police has announced a partnership with Gowling WLG to pursue civil asset recovery for fraud victims in cases where criminal prosecution is not viable. The programme, established following a successful pilot involving a £2m cryptocurrency fraud case, aims to provide victims with an alternative route to recover losses. The initiative comes as UK fraud losses reached £570m in the first half of 2024.

The City of London Police has launched Report Fraud, a national service intended to transform how victims and businesses across England, Wales and Northern Ireland report cyber crime and fraud. The service provides a single national platform for reporting, triage and intelligence, enabling the City of London Police to coordinate policing's pursue, protect, prevent and prepare response at a national level. The City of London Corporation has provided £13.2m in development funding and will contribute £2.5m per year towards ongoing operating costs. Under the new service, intelligence will be assessed and disseminated across forces, serious and complex cases will be identified for specialist investigation and victims will be directed to a consistent national standard of care and support.

The City of London Police has warned that continued collaboration with industry and government, together with faster transformation of the national policing response, is needed to tackle fraud and cyber crime, marking 20 years as the UK's National Lead Force for Fraud. The force highlighted its role since 2006 in coordinating the national response to fraud, establishing specialist fraud units, improving victim support, developing Report Fraud and disrupting organised criminal networks. It stressed that fraud and cyber crime now account for nearly 50% of all crime and called for greater innovation, improved intelligence, advances in technology and the further development of Report Fraud as a world-leading intelligence capability.

The City of London Police has published a report entitled ‘Report Fraud Annual Assessment FY2025–26 Cyber Crime and Fraud’, covering cybercrime and fraud reported across England, Wales and Northern Ireland during the 2025–26 financial year. Reported fraud losses reached £3.2 billion, up 26% on the previous assessment period. Reports in which the reporting person identified artificial intelligence (AI) involvement increased 395% to 956, with associated losses increasing from £1.2 million to £9.6 million. Investment fraud was the most common fraud type identified as using generative AI, including deepfake videos of celebrities and other public figures promoting fraudulent investment opportunities. Investment fraud accounted for 36,464 reports and £911 million in reported losses. Cryptocurrency was identified as an enabler or commodity in 32,493 reports across 53 cybercrime and fraud codes. The assessment also highlights risks to organisations, with organisation size known in 69% of reports and small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for 62% of organisational cybercrime report victims. Phishing and social engineering were the most commonly reported attack vectors.

City of London Police have reported the sentencing of former facilities manager at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP, Paul Fitzsimmons and Toby Britton, a director of one of the companies Fitzsimmons worked with to perpetuate the fraud. Fitzsimmons was responsible for managing relationships with vendors of office and facilities supplies and service. Over a three-year period, Fitzsimmons and Britton would set up fake companies with different directors listed and submit invoices for work that had not been carried out. The invoices were paid and totalled over £1m over the three-year period. Fitzsimmons was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and Toby Britton to four years and six weeks at Southwark Crown Court on 10 October 2023.

City of London Police have reported the sentencing of a former insurance broker, Gary Whipps, after he edited a company’s contract documents to increase the cost of the insurance premiums paid by his clients. As a result of the fraud, Whipps gained £46,125 from companies that ran amusement parks or offered rentals on inflatable play equipment, bouncy castles and soft play areas. Whipps edited 26 contracts between 1 January 2018 to 1 December 2020. Whipps pleaded guilty to 39 counts of fraud by false representation and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, with confiscation proceedings to take place in December 2024.

The City of London Police has reported that Brian Chant, a former executive officer at an Oxfordshire-based company, has been sentenced for bribery and false accounting offences. The City of London Police provided that Chant abused his position as Chief Information Officer to secure a contract worth £22m for an IT company which he had connections with and had received over £474,000 in bribes over the course of his employment. On 1 February 2022, Chant was sentenced to six years imprisonment for bribery offences and 18 months imprisonment for false accounting, with both sentences running concurrently. He was also disqualified from being a company director for three years.

City of London Police has reported that Wahidullah Usmani has been sentenced at Inner London Crown Court for selling invalid car insurance policies on Instagram. City of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department was notified by the fraud team at LV= General Insurance of a suspected fraudulent motor insurance policy. An investigation showed that the account was linked to Usmani where he made £17,618 by manipulating at least 13 customers’ details to bring the cost of the premium down. Usmani was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months, required to complete a 15 day rehabilitation activity and required to pay £1,000 in costs.