NEFF Management Board
NEFF Management Board.
Alan Brown
Chairman of the North East Fraud Forum Management Board. Alan was a member of Northumbria Police for 33 years,retiring in 2000 as the Deputy Chief Constable. He was awarded the Queens Police Medal in 1996 and has a vast range of experience in Policing matters and has lectured in a wide variety of forums including North and South America,where he undertook projects on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He developed a particular interest in intelligence sharing and working in Partnerships,introducing some pioneering systems into the North East whilst working as the Home Office Regional Director between 2000 and 2005,where he had responsibility for Crime Reduction and Drugs Strategy and Neighbourhood Renewal .
Phil Butler
Phil Butler has 25 years service including 20 years in the Criminal Investigation Department in Northumbria Police, he is the Vice Chair of the North East Fraud Forum Management Board.
On 1 January 2003 he was appointed Head of Financial Investigations of the newly formed Northumbria Police Economic Crime Unit.
In May 2004 he led a delegation to the United Nations UNCITRAL Colloquium on combating fraud and financial crime in which the North East Fraud Forum delivered a presentation on global replication of the North East Fraud Forum model.
Alan Doig
Alan Doig is Visiting Professor, Centre for Public Services Management, Liverpool Business School and Hon. Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham. Prior to that he was the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime UNCAC mentor in Thailand, and Resident Advisor for the Council of Europe Prevention of Corruption project for Turkey. He has been Professor of Public Services Management at Teesside Business School and Liverpool Business School where he ran the Fraud Management Studies Units.
Frank Nesbitt M.A., MEWI
Frank Nesbitt completed 30 years with Northumbria Police, the latter 14 years within the Economic Crime Unit (originally known as the Fraud and Commercial Squad). Retiring in June 2006, he then took up the challenge to become Head of Forensic Services within Tait Walker LLP, established in 1937, and arguably the largest independent firm of chartered accountants in the North East of England.
He has gone on to create a professional ‘one -stop-shop' of differing forensic service lines at Tait Walker, and has a resource of 16 retired specialist trained police officers together with a handwriting and document forensic scientist and a forensic voice analysist, at his disposal. Frank and his team carry out almost all types of investigation and produce a result for criminal, civil or disciplinary resolution.
Frank has a Masters degree in Fraud Management and is a Member of the Expert Witness Institute. He is the founding secretary of the North East Fraud Forum and is currently a director of that organisation. He has written many published papers and articles on behalf of trade magazines, newspapers and journals on the subject of fraud and participated frequently on local radio and television.
David Arthur
David is the Senior and Managing Partner of the firm. Having qualified in 1976, he joined Tait Walker in 1977, became a partner in 1979 and the rest, they say, is history. At some time in his career, he has worked in all of the specialist service areas of the firm. He takes special pride in developing a great team of people within the firm so that the clients know they receive exceptional business service.
Mark Heath LLB Partner
Mark undertakes a range of commercial litigation and commercial fraud work. As head of the commercial fraud team his fraud work encompasses civil prosecution of cases for private industry and he also has a substantial portfolio acting for NHS bodies in addressing healthcare fraud on behalf of NHS Hospital Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and Local Health Boards on a national basis.
Alan Batey
Alan Batey is a Detective Sergeant with a wide experience of roles within Northumbria Police having been a Police Officer for over 23 years. His present role and that of the last 5 years is within the High Tech Crime Unit of Northumbria Police. This unit is responsible for dealing with all types of crime where the perpetrator has used a computer, the internet or some other form of digital media to commit or facilitate the crime.
Other roles include secretary to the Regional ACPO High Tech Crime Working Group which reports to the National ACPO Group, and member of the board for the safety in schools pilot project.
Colin Gibson (MSc.)
Colin Gibson is a Security Manager employed by the leading business to business express delivery company TNT where he works from depots in Houghton-le-Spring, Durham Tees Valley Airport and Carlisle. His operating area in the north east of England ranges from Scarborough in the south to north Northumberland, Cumbria and the Scottish borders. His primary roles include the prevention of loss of company assets from fraud and other associated criminality and negligence.
After completing 30 years service Colin retired from Durham Constabulary in August 2007. During his time with the Constabulary he worked in the Darlington, Durham City, Peterlee, Barnard Castle and Bishop Auckland areas and also with the force Drug Squad and Major Crime Team investigating homicides and other serious offences. His final post was as Branch Head of the force's Economic Crime Unit with responsibility for investigating major and complex fraud, cheque and plastic card fraud, computer crime and asset recovery. He also chaired the police North East Working Group on Fraud and sat on the ACPO National Working Group on Fraud.
David Prior
David Prior is managing director of Independent Forensic Accounting Limited which he founded in 2008. Prior to that he was for 8 years a forensic accounting partner, first at RSM Robson Rhodes and latterly at Grant Thornton. Based in Leeds, he has experience of a wide variety of fraud and money laundering investigations. He has been instructed by the SFO, the DTI and various other prosecuting authorities as well as other public and private sector bodies. He is also an experienced expert witness having given evidence in a wide range of Courts and Tribunals.
Alastair Irons
Alastair is Head of Department in the Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology at the University of Sunderland. Prior to joining the University in September 2008 he worked at ONE North East, Northumbria University and ICI having moved to the north east from Scotland after graduating in 1984 from Edinburgh University. As well as being responsible for the management and smooth running of the department he continues to lecture and undertake research in computer and digital forensics. Alastair is a National Teaching Fellow, a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS) and a Chartered IT Professional, a Fellow of the Institution of Engnieering and Technology, a Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He serves on the on BCS' Academic Accreditation Committee and is vice chair of the BCS Cybercrime Special Interest Group.
Allan Curry
Recently retired from Northumbria Police his previous five years service have been spent as the senior police officer with responsibility for Gateshead. In this role he was a lead officer within the Strategic Partnership as well as vice chair of the Community Safety Partnership. Key areas of work consisted of the development of crime reduction and prevention strategies involving a broad spectrum of partner agencies. Previous roles have involved working with Human Resource issues as well as considerable experience in project management. Allan is currently pursuing a new career developing his own company Astute Solutions.Ko (Ask) specialising in Management Consultancy / training and organisational development. In addition Allan holds a position as an independent Director with Norcare (supported housing charity).