‘The police weren’t interested’: what’s driving the rise in private prosecutions?

As the police and courts continue to struggle with the legacy of austerity, many people are seeking alternative routes to justice – but it could be making matters worse

In the summer of 2018, the private investigator Simon Davison got a call from a woman who said her ex-boyfriend had stolen £10,000 from her. Carol (not her real name), a traffic manager at a local council, was not a typical client for Davison. As the director of investigations at AnotherDay, a crisis consultancy in London, Davison usually works for wary companies and wealthy individuals. A former police detective, Davison has recovered stolen cryptocurrency, uncovered secret properties owned by bankrupt business people and tracked down fraudsters to Cyprus.

Davison’s speciality is private prosecutions, a little-known area of law that allows victims to pay for justice. These cases are heard in the same courts used by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the public prosecutor for England and Wales, and they can carry the same amount of prison time for suspects. “We really mirror the process between the police and the CPS,” Davison said. The difference is that the police are agents of the state, whereas people call on Davison when the state fails to help.