Dr Cerian Griffiths

Associate Professor

School: Northumbria School of Law

Initially graduating in Government from the London School of Economics, Cerian was called to the Bar in 2007 and worked for a number of prosecution agencies including the Serious Fraud Agency, the Financial Services Authority, and the Office of Fair Trading. Cerian taught at Birkbeck College, University of London before taking up a lecturing position in law at the University of Warsaw, and then Lancaster Law School before joining Northumbria Law School.

Cerian was awarded her PhD in 2017, the title of which was ‘Prosecuting Fraud in the Metropolis, 1760-1820’. This thesis was carried out at the University of Liverpool as part of the AHRC funded project, The Digital Panopticon: The Global Impact of London Punishments, 1780-1925.

Cerian leads on a number of impactful projects including one on counter fraud measures within the NHS in England, and one with the Home Office and other stakeholders on digital forensics within the criminal justice system. Cerian also leads on a CPD programme with the Credit Services Association, providing training on their counter fraud apprenticeship course, and is the academic lead member on the national Counter Fraud Professional Awards Board.

From 2017 to 2019, Cerian was a national expert (UK including Gibraltar) on a DG FISMA commissioned project examining national compliance with EU financial sector Directives (specifically, the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive)

With a continuing interest in legal history, Cerian is co-editor of the edited collection: English Law and Colonial Connections: Histories, Parallels, and Influences (Routledge, 2023)

Cerian is currently writing her monograph, Prosecuting London’s Fraudsters 1760-1820: Swindlers, Tricksters and the Law, (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2024)

Cerian is an Academic Member of Exchange Chambers.

Email Cerian

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Cerian’s research interests lie in financial crime and the wider criminal justice system, including evidence and trial procedure from the eighteenth century to the modern day. Cerian is particularly interested in counter fraud and the prosecution of financial crime, and her most recent publications have included research into fraud within the NHS and wider issues of criminal procedure including criminal disclosure and the use of intercept evidence in criminal trials.

Cerian’s research on contemporary financial crime draws on her legal practice experience as a fraud investigator within the public sector, and includes the leading of a multidisciplinary project into responses to financial crime within the NHS, Strengthening Fraud Responses with the NHS in England. This project reflects Cerian’s passion for working with policy, professional, and lay stakeholders to undertake meaningful research with real-world impact. Outputs of this wider research interest have to date included the delivery of a two-day CPD course on disclosure delivered to counter-fraud specialists across the NHS, and an on-going delivery of courtroom skills training to the Credit Services Association as part of their apprenticeship delivery.

Cerian is also leading on another impactful research project, Digital Forensics within the criminal justice system: use, effectiveness, and impact. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team to work with the Home Office on their national ‘Impact of Forensic Science Project’. Northumbria’s Digital Forensics project undertook a range of qualitative methods with stakeholders from several police forces, the CPS, national policing bodies, solicitors, barristers, and digital forensics experts, to better understand the way digital forensics impact and influence decision makers through the criminal justice system.

In recent years, Cerian has also acted as the national expert (UK including Gibraltar) on a DG FISMA commissioned project examining national compliance with EU financial sector Directives (specifically, the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive).

Cerian also publishes in the field of legal history, particularly on historical responses to financial crime.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
The Legal Legacy of Jack the Ripper, Griffiths, C., Rutherford, H. 17 Dec 2025, The Routledge Handbook of Jack the Ripper Studies, Abingdon, Routledge
Digital evidence, police investigations, and lessons learned from EncroChat: is it time for a new framework for the admission of digital and communication evidence?, Griffiths, C., Jackson, A. 6 Jun 2024, In: Criminal Law Review
Digital Forensics within the Criminal Justice System: Use, Effectiveness, and Impact, Griffiths, C., Piasecki, E., Carr, S., Anderson, P., Wilson, T. 15 Mar 2024
More Than a Species of Larceny: Fraud Laws and Their Uses in the Eighteenth Century, Griffiths, C. 2024, In: Journal of Legal History
New development: From blanket coverage to patchwork quilt—rethinking organizational responses to fraud in the National Health Service in England, Griffiths, C., Doig, A., Harvey, J., Benson, K., Lord, N. 2 Apr 2024, In: Public Money & Management
Conclusion: Legal History in a Global Setting: Voices from the Peripheries, Griffiths, C., Korporowicz, Ł. 22 Nov 2023, English Law, the Legal Profession, and Colonialism, Abingdon, United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis
English Law, the Legal Profession, and Colonialism: Histories, Parallels, and Influences, Griffiths, C., Korporowicz, Ł. 22 Nov 2023
Getting People Thinking and Talking: An Exploration of the Attorney General’s 2020 Guidelines on Disclosure., Griffiths, C. 1 Oct 2022, In: The International Journal of Evidence & Proof
Intercepted communications as evidence: The Admissibility of Material Obtained from the Encrypted Messaging Service EncroChat: R v A, B, D & C [2021] EWCA Crim 128, Griffiths, C., Jackson, A. 1 Aug 2022, In: The Journal of Criminal Law
The law schools’ “easy win”? Improving law students’ experience through embedded and non-embedded writing support, Griffiths, C. 3 Jul 2021, In: The Law Teacher

PGR Supervision

Cormac McCarthy 'Why White Collar Crime Undermines Society. Where are the prosecutors ? ' Note Paper 3 Literature Review sent to directly to Cerian Griffiths. Start Date: 16/12/2024

Qualifications