Criminal law – Proceeds of crime. It was arguable that the local authority's investigation into alleged offences of fraud relating to a number of businesses, including that of the claimants, was ultra vires and that the authority lacked the legal power to make an application under s 345 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002) for a production order in relation to the claimants' banking records. Consequently, the Queen's Bench Division gave permission for the claimant companies to bring proceedings for judicial review of the recorder's decision to make those production orders. However, the court held that, contrary to the claimant's arguments, the application had correctly been made under POCA 2002 s 345, and accordingly, that ground of the claimants' application was dismissed.