The prosecution of those charged with economic crimes is a painfully slow process due to the lack of experts available to police, according to a recent report compiled for the state’s attorney office.
Almost all of Denmark’s local police departments, the report discovered, are buried under fraud, embezzlement and other financial cases that go unhandled for 12 months or sometimes longer.
Although several initiatives have been implemented to step up the pace, the attorney general’s office said that more needs to be done.
“In my opinion, more local resources need to be used for economic crime,” the deputy attorney general, Gyrithe Ulrich, told DR Nyheder.
“But in the end, it is a decision for the local districts to make.”
Old, cold cases
Michael Møller Hansen at the public prosecutor’s office in Viborg said that local police jurisdictions often lack people with specific knowledge of financial crimes.
“Cases become bogged down in terms of the investigation and legal process,” Hansen said.
He also said that some cases get old because they are complex.
READ MORE: Financial crime figures: up and down
Although both Copenhagen Police and North Zealand Police reported that they have a high conviction rate when it comes to organised crime cases, there are nearly 100 cases of economic crime in Zealand yet to be solved or, in some cases, investigated.
