Fife pensioner jailed over cross-border money laundering plot
A Fife pensioner has been jailed for a year over a cross border money-laundering plot after he was spotted handing a carrier bag stuffed with more than £100,000 in cash to another man outside a working men's club in England.
John Rhinds, 72, was seen by HMRC investigators approaching a parked car outside a working men's club in Barnsley in October 2014.
He was then spotted handing over a supermarket bag for life to Sean Wroe, 34 - prompting officers to intervene.
They found the bag was packed with cash that was "clearly the proceeds of crime".
The pair were interviewed and provided a "far fetched" tale of how the transaction came to take place.
Rhinds, of Bayview Crescent, Leven, claimed he had received an anonymous phone call two days earlier asking him to leave his car unattended at a fast food restaurant in Edinburgh while a parcel was loaded into the boot, with instructions to deliver it to the club.
He added that he had driven the 230 miles without first checking the parcel was in the car, and with no knowledge that he was transporting cash.
Meanwhile, Wroe, 34, of Halifax Road, Barnsley, told HMRC investigators he had arrived for a shift at the club when an unknown male approached his car and passed a bag through the driver's window.
The former steel worker changed his story during a second interview, telling officers he had actually been at the club to buy cannabis, and was only receptive to Rhinds because he believed he was delivering the drug.
However, analysis of Rhinds' mobile phone linked the pair, and despite his claim that he had never previously engaged in such a shadowy trip, roadside automatic number plate recognition cameras later proved Rhinds had made an almost identical journey to Barnsley just three days earlier.
Jo Tyler, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: "Both men gave a far-fetched version of events.
"It seems ridiculous that Rhinds would accept an anonymous call out of the blue, give an unknown person access to his car and then deliver a sinister package to a distant town - without even checking it was in the boot.
"This money was clearly the proceeds of crime, and today's sentence serves as a reminder that HMRC will not tolerate people moving dirty money around the country at free will."
Both men signed letters withdrawing their interest in the money, confirming they would not contest any future cash forfeiture, before pleading guilty to money laundering offences at Sheffield Crown Court on December 2 last year.
His Honour Judge Peter Kelson sentenced the pair to 12 months each in prison.