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 Professor of Public Services Management at Teesside Business School where he is also Head of the Fraud Management Studies Unit and sits on the North East Fraud Forum Management Board.
Frank Nesbitt M.A., MEWI
Frank Nesbitt has just completed 30 years as a Police Officer with Northumbria Police. From 1993 - 2006 he was working as a Fraud Investigator within the Economic Crime Unit and dealt with a vast variety of Fraud cases ranging from Probate Fraud to Public Sector Corruption. In 2005 Frank achieved an MA in Fraud Case Management at the University of Teesside and became a member of the Expert Witness Institute on 14th September 2006. Frank now works for Tait Walker Chartered Accountants as the Forensic Services Manager and Fraud Consultant.
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
Colin Gibson has over 27years police service. He is a Detective Inspector and Branch Head of Durham Constabulary's Economic Crime Unit. He also sits as the north east representative 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 Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS) and a Chartered IT Professional, a Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is chair of the Learning Development Group for the Council of Heads and Professors of Computing (CPHC) and sits on the CPHC management committee. He sits on the management steering group of the Higher Education Academy ICS subject centre as well as serving on BCS' Academic Accreditation Committee. He is also vice chair of the BCS Cybercrime Special Interest Group.
Alastair's research interests focus on computer forensics and pedagogic issues in particular student assessment and feedback. He has recently published books on Formative Feedback and on Learning and Teaching issues in Computing.
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 positions as an independent Director with Norcare (supported housing charity) and Gateshead Housing Company.