Reporting suspicious activities

Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) must be submitted to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Reports alert law enforcement to potential instances of money laundering or terrorist financing.

Ultimately, submitting a SAR protects you, your firm, the profession and the UK from the risk of laundering the proceeds of crime.

What is a suspicious activity report (SAR)?

A suspicious activity report (SAR) is a disclosure made to the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKIU) (part of the NCA) about known or suspected:

money laundering – under part 7 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA)
terrorist financing – under part 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT)

It is important to note that SARs are treated confidential in order to protect the identity of those who make them. Further information on confidentiality of SARs is included in the Home Office Circular 022/2015

When to make a SAR

A SAR is required when, during the course of their business in a regulated sector, a relevant employee (e.g. a member in practice) has knowledge, suspicion and/or grounds to know or suspect a money laundering or terrorist financing offence has occurred. It is a criminal offence to fail to report.

The Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) has a duty to consider all such reports. If the MLRO also suspects money laundering or terrorist financing, then they must make an onward disclosure (otherwise known as a SAR) to the NCA. The MLRO must make the report to the NCA as 'soon as is reasonably practicable' after the information is brought to their attention (POCA 2002).

There is no obligation to report to the NCA where none of the following are known or suspected:

the identity of the person who is engaged in money laundering
the whereabouts of any of the laundered property
that any of the information that is available would assist in identifying that person, or the whereabouts of the laundered property.

Further guidance on each of these elements (and the privileged circumstances reporting exemption) is contained within section 6 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Guidance for the Accountancy Sector (AMLGAS).

Once a SAR is made, it is important to consider whether or not it is appropriate to continue to act. If you decide to disengage for the client, this should be document, ideally by a disengagement letter.

Forming a suspicion

You’ll need to decide whether you’ve formed a suspicion before you’re obliged to make a SAR.

The threshold for suspicion is low. The leading test comes from R v Da Silva [2006] EWCA Crim 1654.

You have a reportable suspicion if you think there’s a possibility, which is more than fanciful, that the relevant facts exist. In Da Silva, it was noted that "a vague feeling of unease would not suffice".

Factors to consider when deciding to make a report are included in Appendix C of the AMLGAS. Please note that:

as MLRO, you should form your own views as to whether you are suspicious by asking questions and reviewing information. Concerns by employees are not sufficient evidence of suspicion (Shah v HSBC [2012] EWHC 1283 (QB)).
In order to form a suspicion, there must be criminal property, that is, property that results from criminal conduct in the UK or overseas Anwoir and others [2008] EWCA Crim 1354.
Suspicion is not automatically transferred if, for example, a police officer advises you that your client is under investigation for a criminal offence. You must make your own assessment of suspicion in light of client information.

It may be helpful to refer to the Red Flag Indicators guidance and Metropolitan Police Criminal Indicators for accountants guidance as part of your deliberations.

Once you've formed your suspicion, it's good practice to document the basis for your reasons. Equally, it is important to document why there is no suspicion and you have decided not to submit a SAR.

How to submit a SAR

Submit your SAR online via the NCA website. Please be advised that the NCA implemented a new SAR portal in September 2023. If you registered before that date, you must re-register. The NCA website has further guidance about submitting SARs on the platform. .

You will receive a confirmation e-mail, and your report will be processed in around five to seven working days. Since it is not possible to retrieve the SAR once submitted, it is recommended to retain the SAR in a secure location.

Tips for making a good quality SAR

Given the number of SARs and DAMLs being submitted every year, it is imperative that that SARs and DAML requests are good quality. According to the UK Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Activity Report (April 2022 - March 2023), UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) received and processed 901,255 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) which is an increase of 21% from the previous year.

When submitting a SAR, you need to think about what, who, why, when, how, where and keep it as short and punchy as possible. Where information is known, every effort should be made to complete all relevant fields accurately. To help guide you through the SAR process, the NCA has provided detailed guidance, which can be found on their website.

In addition, NCA’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has come up with some practical tips on how to submit a better quality SAR:

1. Submit at SAR online

Use the SAR Portal on the NCA website to submit a SAR online. For more information the NCA have produced a guidance booklet on submitting a better quality SARs.

2. Be clear and concise

The report should be clear, concise, logical and include all relevant and supporting documentation. In order to make it easier to read and understand, avoid using acronyms, jargon and writing in bold or capital letters. If a large amount of text is being submitted, break it up with paragraphs and use punctuation where appropriate.

3. Providing the right information

Subject type. Use the options to classify each subject as suspect, victim or unknown, this helps put each subject's role into context and also makes clear where subjects are not suspected of criminal activity.
Subject details - individuals. Where possible provide any middle names, date of birth (especially helpful), addresses (including postcodes where known), email addresses, web page addresses and any other known identifiers such as National Insurance number, passport number, car registration or phone numbers.
Subject details - entities. Wherever possible include the registration number, (tax reference and VAT number is also useful), country of incorporation, addresses (including postcodes where known), email and web addresses, phone numbers and wherever possible the full legal name and designation, e.g. Limited, SA, GmbH etc.
Financial transactions. When the suspicion relates to a financial transaction, include details of the beneficiary/remitter of funds, bank account details, transaction date and transaction type e.g. credit card, cash and explain the reason why any of the transactions are suspicious.
Services provided. Provide details of the types of services being provided at the time the suspicion arose e.g. audit, assurance, company formation, tax etc. and include date of activity, how the activity will take place and where known, full identity of the parties involved as well as indicators suggesting complicit criminal behaviour or negligent behaviour of the professional(s) involved.
Reason for suspicion. Keep your explanation clear, concise and in plain English and focus on what you have seen and why it is unusual or suspicious. Where you feel able to, refer to which predicate offences (i.e. the underlying criminal conduct giving rise to the money laundering) you think may have been committed.

If you know the Act and section number detailing the offence, put it in as it helps explain why you are reporting. Do not include reporting officers' details in a SAR. If you do not know details of certain information, please enter the word 'UNKOWN' rather than leaving a blank filed or populating the information with a *, ? or ….

4. Use glossary codes

The NCA has for some time encouraged use of its glossary codes to help identify the nature of the reported offence. NCA published the Glossary Codes guidance (ensure you filter by ‘most recent’).

Use of the codes and their descriptions significantly enhances the capabilities of law enforcements agencies to utilise SARs. The list of codes is segmented into some straightforward categories such as economic crimes (includes tax offences), high end money laundering, vulnerable persons and so on.

Unfortunately, the current SARs online reporting system does not contain any drop-down menus for the glossary codes. Reporters are therefore advised to include the appropriate code in the narrative of their report, for example, the 'reason for suspicion/knowledge' text space.

5. Other reporting considerations

In addition to making a report to the NCA, you may have to make a report to other authorities to make sure that the right information gets to the right place.

The SAR regime is not a route to report crime or matters relating to immediate risk to others. For example, if laundering relates to fraud, then a report must also be made to Action Fraud. Further information on reporting crime is available at the NCA website.

Obtaining a request against money laundering or terrorist financing

The UKFIU can provide a reporter with a defence against the principal money laundering or terrorist financing offences, for a specified future activity or activities (POCA Section 335 and Section 21Za of TACT).

Should you want to seek a defence, please refer to the UKFIU guidance Requesting a defence from the NCA under POCA and TACT and Defence Against Money Laundering (DAML) FAQs which provide further information on the process.

When making a SAR online, please tick the box 'consent' and clearly specific the activity for which a defence is required.

Urgent queries regarding DAML requests can be emailed to [email protected]

Tipping off

Tipping off is an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. It is committed when:

a SAR has been made, and is then disclosed in a manner likely to prejudice any subsequent investigation; or
where an investigation of money laundering is underway or contemplated and a disclosure is likely to prejudice that investigation.

Internal discussions within the firm do not constitute tipping off.