I refer to recent press reports on the police expressing concern that white collar crime is escalating and people are getting away with it. I seriously believe it is about time that the government forms a Serious Fraud Office modeled after the British concept to investigate this sort of crime.

These crimes are committed by clever and intelligent people and to bring them to justice you need professionals who are expert in the field and all working together. At present in Malaysia, various different units investigate white-collar crime. They are the Securities Commission, maybe the ACA and maybe the Commercial Crime Unit of the police force. These efforts are not enough as a combined and intelligent effort is needed to combat this.

It is not sufficient to send policemen or taxmen for a two-week or even six-month training course on financial matters and hope they will have enough expertise to fight clever crooks. The clever crook has been at it for years and probably knows his stuff with both eyes closed.

Many accountants, bankers and lawyers will be more than happy to join our Serious Fraud Office if it is a investigative unit and not a police unit, meaning we won't be asked to run 10km and do 100 push ups to join up.

Our present way of fighting white-collar crime cannot go on as those-in-charge lack either sufficient knowledge or experience to be able to comprehend the complexity of the cases. Mind you, not all bankers, accountants or lawyers will be able to handle it as well.

It is best start with those who have an affinity for numbers and think innovatively. Let's unleash the talent available at our disposal. There's no need to send people for expensive courses in the US and Europe to learn about financial investigative techniques. Some of us here can do it with both of eyes closed while dreaming of exotic holidays and people.

Until and unless we change our antiquated approach, we are going to be struggling in this fight as it is not petty thieves or ordinary house robbers we are talking about.