The souped-up Serious Fraud Office aims to manage fewer cases, better and faster.

Like homicides, serious fraud investigations require a “lot of resources for a very intense period to make progress”, chief executive Adam Feely told a parliamentary select committee yesterday.

If not, then cases ran the risk of backlogging and becoming stagnant.

Four of five Capital + Merchant directors have applied to have criminal charges against them dismissed on grounds of what the court heard today to be “administrative” legal issues.

Directors Neal Nicholls, Owen Tallentire, Colin Ryan and Robert Sutherland, together with Wayne Douglas, who was registered as a director in February 2007, face criminal charges laid by the Securities Commission.

Mr Nicolls and Mr Douglas appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning while the three other directors were excused due to their living in Australia.