At Armstrong Watson we are committed to making complex or voluminous financial information readily understandable to those instructing us and to the Court.

Where possible, we utilise specialist software and modelling techniques to summarise and present the data in a simplified format. In particular, we utilise specialist bank statement scanning software to convert transactions on bank statements into spreadsheets. This then enables the information contained therein to be readily analysed and summarised. It also has the advantage that it is at least five times quicker than inputting the information manually and has inherent checks to minimise the possibility of human error.

Depending upon the level of assistance you require we can:

• Just scan the documents and provide the resultant database to you
• Undertake an agreed level of analysis and provide a short accompanying commentary
• Prepare a full expert witness report detailing the work undertaken and the results of our findings

We frequently use this software to summarise the bank transactions for several years into a single sheet table that summarises the transactions by year. This can then highlight areas that require further investigation or analysis such as:

• Transfers between related parties
• The sources of income/unknown income
• The destination of payments/unknown payments
• Other relevant transactions

When presenting the results of the analysis we can also easily exclude transactions relating to particular individuals or bank accounts if they are no longer part of the case, as well as readily adapting the analysis to show the data by tax, calendar or accounting year.

We have also frequently used the software to process other types of documents that need to be converted to electronic format, as demonstrated in the case studies below.

If you would like to find out more about how we are able to assist you, please get in touch.

Case Studies

   Identification of income from unknown sources

We are regularly asked to produce and analyse databases of between 5,000 and 100,000 transactions from the original bank statements. In one such case, we produced a database of 27,000 transactions from the bank statements for various businesses and six individuals covering seven years. We were able to summarise the results of our analysis on one sheet of A4 and this document was used in Court to show that the various individuals had received in excess of £1million over the seven-year period for which the source was unknown. A number of the individuals pleaded guilty to multiple offences including money laundering.

   Review of purchase and sales records

We were involved in an intellectual property matter where the Defender was reluctant to provide us with access to its accounting information. We had asked for disclosure of various purchase and sales ledgers to enable us to consider the number of particular items purchased and sold within a specified period. The Defender eventually disclosed the documents the evening before we were due to visit their premises to review the supporting invoices. Despite the late arrival of the documents, we were able to scan the ledgers using the specialist software and use them as the basis for our review on the following day.

   Personal injury claim of a dentist

We assisted in a claim being made by a dentist following a road traffic accident. The dentist alleged that he had been increasingly specialising in certain types of treatments, including dental implants, that were of a higher value and that his claim should therefore be based on the likelihood of a significant growth in income from these areas. We utilised the software to scan the anonymised income records for numerous dental patients and from this were able to identify the types of specialised treatments being provided and to calculate the proportion of these to normal dental treatments. This enabled us to show that the dental practice was not providing specialist treatments on a regular basis, and there was no evidence of growth in this area. We prepared a report which explained that the claim should be calculated by reference to the income being generated from normal dental treatments. The claim settled, but having reduced by £6 million first.