R v. JS - Burnley Crown Court.
A case where Mr. S was laundering money via a cheque cashing process.
Mr. S had a bank account, which he seldom used and agreed to sign over his chequebook and all the cheques to his co-defendant if he was paid a commission. This commission was based on the amount of money going through his account. The co-defendant obtained his money through criminal means and deposited the cash into Mr. S' bank account by fraudulent bank transfers and cheques and then wrote out cheques to himself which allowed him to withdraw cash over the counter.
On being investigated, it was important for S to spell out his role to limit his culpability and his reasons for participating. This significantly reduced his sentence as the judge accepted that our client had been exploited.
R v. P - Southwark Crown Court - £5 million fraud
A further example of an individual being exploited, using the cheque cashing procedure.
P was a builder and allowed his account to the used by a friend who was using P’s account to launder criminal monies. P had been paid a commission, but on this occasion raised a defence that he did not believe or suspect that his friend was laundering money as he had always believed his friend was a man of substantial means. The Jury accepted our client's evidence, and he was acquitted.
R v. C - Leeds Crown Court - £8 million VAT Fraud
The circumstance of the above two case was exactly as those outlined above. However, in both instances, our clients were taken advantage of because they were elderly gentleman with no previous convictions, they were good-natured and trusting.
On this occasion, money was diverted from a VAT fraud and our client's account was used to process the money.
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