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

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 By Hettie O’Brien. Read by Rebecca Trehearn. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:10.5	Welcome to The Guardian long read,
0:12.6	showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking.
0:17.2	For the text version of this and all our long reads, go to the Guardian.com forward slash long read.
0:25.5	The police weren't interested.
0:28.4	What's driving the rise in private prosecutions?
0:31.5	By Hetty O'Brien.
0:33.1	Read by Rebecca Trahern.
0:42.7	Music led by Rebecca Traherne. In the summer of 2018, the private investigator Simon Davison got a call from a woman who said her
0:49.0	ex-boyfriend had stolen £10,000 from her.
0:53.1	Carol, not her real name,
0:55.0	a traffic manager at a local council,
0:57.0	was not a typical client for Davison.
1:00.0	As the director of investigations at Another Day,
1:03.0	a crisis consultancy in London,
1:06.0	Davison usually works for wary companies and wealthy individuals.
1:10.0	A former police detective, Davison has recovered
1:13.2	stolen cryptocurrency, uncovered secret properties owned by bankrupt business people, and tracked down
1:19.5	fraudsters to Cyprus. Davison's specialty is private prosecutions, a little-known area of law that allows victims to pay for justice.
1:33.8	These cases are heard in the same courts used by the Crown Prosecution Service, CPS, the public prosecutor for England and Wales,
1:41.2	and they can carry the same amount of prison time for suspects.
1:45.5	We really mirror the process between the police and the CPS, Davison said.
	...

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