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16 Aug 2021

You may have heard of the term money laundering before. This is due to the fact that money laundering has become a very serious problem in the UK in recent years. In fact the UK is the most targeted country for money laundering and this costs the government approximately £8billion a year. So what is money laundering? Our fraud solicitor will be able to explain to you that money laundering refers to the cleaning of dirty money through the financial system in order to give the impression that the money has come from legitimate sources rather than the proceeds of crime. ABV Solicitors are experts in the field of fraud and in particular money laundering cases, having dealt with a number of notable cases. Therefore if you are looking for advice on money laundering offences then contact ABV Solicitors and we will be able to assist you.

Money laundering explained

So how exactly does money laundering work? You may be wondering what dirty money is and how it can be cleaned. Our fraud solicitor will explain that dirty money is essentially any money obtained through criminal activities such as drug trafficking, theft and burglary. Criminals then try to clean this money and legitimise it through the financial system. They do this by putting the money into legitimate businesses such as launderettes, hair or beauty salons etc. and also through purchasing property and other large assets. This is the reason why the UK housing market is the most targeted in the world and criminals often seek to purchase properties in the UK with their proceeds of crime.

How is money laundering being tackled?

Our fraud solicitor will be able to tell you that there are now a number of stringent rules and regulations that have been put in place in order to try and tackle money laundering. For example when purchasing a property in the UK solicitors are now required to undertake thorough identity and proof of funds checks, to ensure that all money being used to purchase the property has come from legitimate sources. This has lengthened the process for solicitors, but is now a legal requirement in order to minimise money laundering and to identify it as soon as practically possible. Where solicitors suspect money laundering they have to immediately contact the requisite authorities, but must do so in a subtle manner to avoid ‘tipping off’ the criminal.

It is important to note that money laundering criminals are very intelligent as they have almost always done this before and therefore become experienced in how to ‘cheat’ the system. The tell-tale signs of money laundering that you should therefore look out for are large sums of money being moved systematically from one account to another, and checking the background and profession of the criminal to see if the salary and the amounts match up with the amounts that the criminal is declaring as his legitimate money. The authorities have been successful in tracking a lot of these criminals, however there is still a lot of work to be done as money laundering continues to rise in the UK.