Delivery driver caught trying to smuggle cash across Channel jailed
£720,000 worth of cash was found in bundles hidden in the van
Last updated 19th Dec 2023
A delivery driver who tried to smuggle hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of illegally-earned cash across the Channel's has been jailed.
Simonas Moise, of no fixed address, was caught by security staff as he tried to enter the Channel Tunnel on Monday 6 June.
A search by Kent Police found 90 bundles of hidden cash in the panelling of his van.
The cash totalled £720,000.
The 49-year-old had claimed to be transporting the money on behalf of a contact in Romania.
He was found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court of money laundering and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Gemma Simpson of Kent Police’s Border Investigations Unit said:
"Simonas Moise claimed to be an innocent middle-man with no knowledge of any wrongdoing but if that were true he would have had no need to go to such great lengths to hide the vast sums of cash he was attempting to smuggle out of the country.
"He was in fact well aware the money had been earned through criminal means and was trying his best to exit the UK undetected.
"I am pleased the jury in his trial saw through his lies and that another offender who wrongly thought he could pull the wool over our eyes has been caught and sent to prison."