YHFF Board Directors

Tony Booth FCA

Tony is the chairman of the YHFF and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Until his retirement, Tony was a partner in KPMG where he was closely involved in audit and corporate finance work.

He also worked with the forensic accounting teams in Leeds and London and acted as an expert witness on several occasions.

Tony is now involved as a non executive director and business advisor to several business entities and has served as a governor to a leading private school.

Vivien Osborne ACA

Vivien heads up the Investigations and Compliance unit within the Forensic department at KPMG, Leeds office. She is a Chartered Accountant and an Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist.

At KPMG, Vivien has overseen a number of high profile fraud investigations and is experienced at seeking out the facts and supporting case evidence including conducting investigative interviews, electronic review and document handling. She has handled large complex frauds as well as smaller misconduct concerns.

Vivien has also led several fraud risk management assignments involving the review of current corporate procedures, identification of fraud risks, fraud risk workshops, advising on internal audit improvements and other procedural recommendations to minimize the impact of fraud on corporates.
 
In addition to forensic work, Vivien has extensive experience in the accountancy profession including audit, corporate restructuring and corporate finance work.

Chris Clements FCA MEWI MAE MCIArb

Chris Clements is a partner in Grant Thornton UK LLP's Forensic & Investigation Services team. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and holds a Joint Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Durham. He is a member of The Expert Witness Institute, the Academy of Experts, and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is also an accredited mediator. He is the finance director for the Yorkshire & Humber Fraud Forum. He is also a governor of a further education college.

He has specialised in forensic accounting since 1996 and has a breadth of experience in fraud, investigation, determination and expert witness work. He has given evidence on a number of occasions including in front of juries and has been appointed as Expert Assessor by the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Specific fraud/bribery investigation cases include:
• Assisting a quoted company investigate an overtime fraud.
• Examining the accounting records of a business to establish the extent of extraction of funds by its finance director.
• Investigating three Trading Standards frauds.
• Investigating the payment of bribes to the Far East by a managing director and the impact on the value of the business.
• Quantifying a fraud by a supplier against its main customer.
• Reconstructing the accounts of a complex group of companies following a major fraud.
• Working with a charity to investigate allegations of fraud.

Chris has also conducted lectures internally and externally on topics including fraud investigation, prevention and response.

Detective Inspector Ian Wills BSc (Hons)

Detective Inspector Ian Wills is the head of the North Yorkshire Police Economic Crime Unit, a post he has held since 2008. He joined North Yorkshire Police in 1985 and has spent much of his career in the field of financial investigation. He is accredited by the National Police Improvement Agency as a financial investigator.

In 1993 he was seconded to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the collapse of the chemical company MTM Plc, with responsibility for investigating the company’s relationship with investment banks in the City of London. His investigation secured the first ever conviction in the UK for misleading the money markets. Since then he has been the Senior Investigating Officer on numerous fraud investigations including the recent conviction of a North Yorkshire man for fraudulently selling the Ritz hotel in London.

Ian is currently studying towards a MBA in fraud investigation with the University of Teesside.

Ben Lowans

Ben is a Litigation and Dispute Resolution partner at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, specialising in finance litigation and fraud. Ben's experience involves all aspects of finance litigation including claims for and against banks, recovery actions, and dealing with complaints to the financial ombudsman service. Ben acts for many clients in the asset finance and leasing sector. Ben also acts for mortgage lenders in professional negligence claims against solicitors and valuers and in contested possession claims.

Ben has a particular specialisation in dealing with fraud claims and asset recovery, both in the financial services sector and for commercial organisations, particularly when they are the victims of employee fraud.

Ben is an Associate Member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Gary Blinkhorn

Gary is the Manager of the South Yorkshire Police Economic Crime Unit, a research and development unit based in Sheffield.

He was previously the Detective Chief inspector in Charge of the South Yorkshire Police Economic Crime Unit and is a founder director of the Yorkshire and Humber Fraud Forum. He is a trained Financial Investigator and has several Crown Court commendations relating to successful fraud investigations.

He was responsible for the highly publicised investigation Operation Fox, which related to a criminal syndicate who were convicted of selling huge amounts of unfit poultry into the human food chain in the 1990’s.