A recent survey by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) shows that only one in four UK businesses are aware of the penalties they could face under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 if they fail to prevent the criminal facilitation of tax evasion by any person or organisation providing a service for them or on their behalf.

One would expect larger firms to be more aware of this than smaller firms, and firms in the financial services sector showed nearly 60 per cent awareness.

Failing to comply with the provisions of the Act can bring about potentially unlimited fines and, where applicable, a ban on acting as a director and loss of regulatory approval.