Working in the Fraud
Investigation Service
(Organised Crime) 

Mark has 17 years of civil service experience and prior to joining HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in 2017, he worked as an Insolvency Examiner. His current role at HMRC is in the Fraud Investigation Service, Organised Crime team. He explains how he started working at HMRC and his current role. 

In 2017 I successfully applied for HMRC’s Tax Specialist Programme and joined HMRC’s Wealthy and Mid-sized Business Compliance Team. The Tax Specialist Programme allowed me to gain broad cross tax knowledge, specialising in Corporation Tax.  

As my career to date had been dedicated to technical investigative roles, safeguarding public finances, aligned with adversarial customer environments, I recognised that Fraud Investigations would be a good fit for my background, knowledge, and skills. 

I moved to the Fraud Investigation Service, Organised Crime in January 2019 and completed the Tax Specialist Programme in 2020. 

Fraud Investigation Service has three main strands, Organised Crime, Individuals and Businesses and Offshore Corporate and Wealthy.  

Working in Organised Crime involves carrying out and co-ordinating large-scale investigations into some of the most harmful tax cheats in the UK. Close collaboration with colleagues is a large part of the job to ensure the correct approach. Investigations often involve experts from across tax heads, insolvency teams, analysts, solicitors and other subject matter experts.  

The role gives you high levels of autonomy, allowing you to use your initiative and strategise the most impactful way to disrupt and dismantle Organised Crime groups, ensuring maximum recovery for public services. 

Day-to-day I carry out in depth risk reviews, analyse large scale data sets, draft court applications, attend tribunals and submit technical tax submissions – being organised and working at pace are key requirements for the job. Although an understanding across tax disciplines is useful, you can quickly learn from colleagues who are always very supportive. 

There are always improvements or innovations to get involved in or take forward and you are supported and encouraged to put forward any suggestions. Ever changing technology has enabled us to ensure we can close the gap between the pace fraudsters operate and HMRC’s response. You will be able to help shape this through joining at this exciting time. 

Another aspect of my role is to educate and inform. I educate legitimate larger businesses on the most common frauds. And as a senior investigator, I upskill caseworkers across the UK advising on the most appropriate tools and techniques for disrupting organised crime. 

A tax specialist in Organised Crime is a rewarding yet challenging career with healthy work life balance. If you possess good knowledge in tax, accountancy, legal or insolvency you should be strongly positioned to work in the Fraud Investigation Service.  

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