Shown below are the details of the current Steering Group.

Steve Jackson (Chair)

Steve is the National Fraud Controller for Zurich Insurance Company having formerly served as a police officer for more than 20 years specialising in the forensic reconstruction of road traffic accidents.

He was subsequently employed as a Special Investigator with two major loss adjusters to investigate fraudulent insurance claims involving Property, Motor, Commercial, and Marine Insurance; Supplier Fraud and Claims Management Companies.

He is currently responsible for the development, training and implementation of anti-fraud strategy with particular regard to fraudulent claims targeted at the Public Sector and Casualty claims.

James Pinder (Secretary)

James was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and graduated from Hull University in 1978. He subsequently attended Chester College of Law and qualified as a solicitor in 1983. He is a partner at DWF working from their Preston office. He is the partner in charge of the Counter-Fraud Department, having specialised in fighting fraud on behalf of insurers and commercial clients for many years.

James has developed a market leading service and is recognised as an expert in his field. He regularly contributes to articles and features in the insurance and national press and is a member of the Law Society's Civil Fraud Reference Group. His interests include fishing, shooting, classical music and martial arts.

Alex Marsden (Treasurer)

Alex joined BDO Stoy Hayward in 1985 qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1989. He gained experience in audit, accountancy, fraud investigations, insolvency investigations, due diligence investigations, taxation and financial reporting. Specializing in Forensic Accounting since 1991, he leads the Fraud and investigations unit of BDO in the North West. He has investigated many frauds in private and public sector organizations and has a specialism in investigation of royalty agreements and royalty returns.

He has acted for various local police forces and DTI - public interest unit, company disqualification unit and company investigation unit. Worked alongside SFO, he has significant experience in over 250 litigation cases acting as expert witness. He has also acted for both claimant and defendant and appeared in the High Court in London and the equivalent court in Amsterdam as well as the Manchester Courts.

Richard Davies

Richard is a career investigator, leading investigations in the Investments, Life, General and Healthcare insurance sectors. He is currently employed by AXA UK as their Group Fraud Risk Manager, working with senior management to identify and scale fraud risks, lead the resolution of complex fraud events, and build strategic prevention and detection controls.

Richard is a member of the Association of British Insurers Financial Crime Committee and sits on the academic board of the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at the University of Portsmouth. He is a vocal champion of collaborative approaches to manage financial crime and was heavily involved in the definition and formation of the Insurance Fraud Bureau, which launched in July 2006, and for which he remains a Board Member.

Tim Craig

Tim Craig is Joint Managing Director of The Business Connection, Chester's oldest commercial recruitment company established in 1988. He is also a senior partner in Veridata, a returned and undelivered data capture scanning business specialising in the financial services and banking sectors.

Tim works exclusively in the recruitment of senior people who have expertise in the prevention of Financial Crime and associated Risk for the Banking, Insurance and Financial Services sectors. He has had a wide and varied career, and has worked and lived on three continents running various businesses. With several years as a presenting analyst for a firm of international management consultants in SA, Europe and the UK and he also held the role of Project Manager for The Institute of Child Health based at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Tim sits on the NWFF committee as the CBI's representative.

Damien Margetson

Damien has twelve years’ experience in the accounting profession with nine years experience of fraud work both in the UK and internationally, covering all types of fraud. He has also undertaken many assignments involving misstatement and manipulation of accounting records and has undertaken money-laundering reviews. Many assignments have involved reporting the results of the investigation to regulatory authorities, such as Police fraud squads, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). More recently Damien has been advising clients on Fraud risk management strategies and on the use of Data Analytic tools in order to reduce the threat of fraud.

Paul Henly

For the last six years Paul has been responsible for developing and promoting a wide range of policy issues on behalf of the 18,500 plus members of the Federation of Small Businesses in the North West. Prior to this he spent three years managing the regional business support activities for a building federation. From 1975 until 1997, Paul worked within the electricity supply industry in a variety of managerial positions including management accounts, personnel and media & public relations.

David Winch

David is Director of Accounting Evidence Ltd, litigation support and forensic accountants, an accredited expert witness, a regular contributor to AccountingWeb and other publications and a nationally recognized authority on money laundering. David's particular strength is in criminal litigation, acting as the key expert, at different times, for both prosecution and defence teams in relation to criminal investigations and related proceeds of crime, confiscation and civil recovery proceedings.

DCI Dominic Scally

Dominic Scally is Detective Chief Inspector at the Economic Crime Section (ECS) within Greater Manchester Police. He has been with GMP for 14 years and has worked across the county in a variety of functions. These have ranged from delivering front line policing in an inner city environment to being part of the planning team for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

The ECS investigates complex and high value frauds. In addition to this the Section also investigates money laundering offences, particularly those associated with organised criminality. The Section also has a unit of accredited financial investigators who specialise in the confiscation of assets from convicted criminals.

Mike Wyeth

Mike is the Group Security Director of the Littlewoods Shop Direct Group a remote trading organisation with a HQ in Merseyside and significant sites, call centers, warehouses and distribution depots, throughout the North West. Prior to working in the private sector Mike had a Police career, retiring as Chief Officer of Guernsey Police in 2003.