Leading Article: Plea Bargaining Is Efficient but It Is a Long Way from Justice

Beginning of article

THE NEW head of the Serious Fraud Office, Robert Wardle, has inaugurated his tenure by suggesting that fraudsters should be offered lighter sentences in return for confessing their guilt. The arguments for doing so are attractive. Fraud trials tend to be long, complex and expensive, and they are becoming more so all the time. The rate of conviction also tends to be low; juries, it is said, find it hard to grasp the vast amount of detailed evidence that a serious fraud trial entails.

The introduction of a US-style system of plea-bargaining could bring a sharp cut in court costs, coupled with a higher rate of conviction. A significant number of fraudsters, Mr Wardle …