Mr C

Updated:Dec 2008

On 24th February 2005, as part of Operation Woonsocket, officers from London RART targeted foreign exchange bureaus within the London Area. It was strongly suspected that the proceeds of crime in the form of low value British Sterling was being converted into high denomination Euros to assist in the concealment for cross border transfer.

The subject known for reporting purposes as Mr C was seen to change a large quantity of sterling to Euros and was stopped shortly after he left the bureau. He was found to be in possession of €16,620 and £305 in cash and could not properly account for the money. He was arrested for money laundering and, during a search of his home address, a further €16,680 and £430 was found together with a forged Nigerian passport and four laptop computers which were later found to be stolen.

During interview Mr C claimed that the majority of the cash related to two separate business transactions by Nigerian traders and had been brought into the country the same day by an associate. Mr C further claimed that the majority of Nigerian business is carried out on the unofficial market using only cash, therefore he had no documents available to show any audit trails. Mr C also claimed he had legitimately purchased the laptops over a nine month period however it was subsequently discovered that they had been stolen from four burglaries within four weeks of his arrest.

The Crown Prosecution Service took the decision not to prosecute Mr C for handling stolen goods due to there being insufficient evidence of ‘knowing or believing’ the goods to be stolen.

Financial enquiries showed that Mr C had sent over £130,000 in money transfers to Nigeria during a 14 month period with no known legitimate income in the UK. Forfeiture was applied for on the basis of all the circumstantial evidence, the combination of which indicated that it had arisen from or was intended for unlawful conduct.

Following a contested hearing on 5th July 2006 at Horseferry Road Magistrates, the court ruled that the cash was recoverable property and a forfeiture order was made for the full amount of £25,624.82