Bolton Cabbie's £96k Dirty Money Shame
19th September 2009
A cab driver from Bolton who acted as a courier in an alleged £30 million money laundering scam has been spared jail.
Ibrahim Patel, aged 43, of Rosamond Street, Bolton, was caught ferrying £96,000 in cash 140 miles south from Bolton, to Luton in Bedfordshire.
Investigators say he was working for a gang which handled up to £6m a month in dirty money.
At Southwark Crown Court yesterday, Patel escaped with a 40-month suspended sentence after he claimed he was no more than a driver.
Prosecutor Richard Jory said officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) tailed Patel from Khojent money service bureau on the outskirts of Manchester in the early hours of April 12, 2007.
The court heard the defendant is listed as a company secretary at Khojent.
At 7am, the Vauxhall Vectra he was driving pulled up in Highmead in Luton at the home of 39-year-old Asif Ali.
Mr Joy said: “There was a curious routine, in which the vehicle drove around the corner of Mr Ali’s house, and Mr Ali came out to get into the vehicle.
“He got out a black binliner containing £96,000 in cash, and put it on the rear passenger seat behind, where Mr Ali was sitting.
“It was at that point that officers intervened and arrested the two gentlemen.”
In interview, Indian national Patel said he had been a taxi driver in Bolton for five years, earning just £100 a week.
He said the Vauxhall Vectra was a courtesy car, and that he had been approached by a man offering him £200 to take the money to Luton.
Ali, the man who picked up the cash in Luton, faces charges that he handled more than £30m of criminal money over a six-month period at a rate of around £5m per month.
He is set to be tried next year, alongside Patel’s nephew Mohmed Patel and Muhammed Umer, both 33.
Judge Martin Beddoe told Ibrahim Patel to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and pay back the £200, as well as £400 in court costs.
He also told him to complete the course, which apparently helps prevent re-offending.
The judge said: “The Crown has accepted that, as far as you were concerned, this was a one-off offence, and that the circumstances of your involvement are limited.
“However, it can't have escaped you as you took possession of that money in Bolton that it was a very considerable sum of money, even if you didn't know the specific amount, and that you were making an exceptional journey to deliver it to someone in Luton.”
Ali, of Highmead, Luton, denies seven counts of acquiring, using or possessing criminal property between October 1, 2006, and April 13, 2007, with amounts ranging from £2,311,000 in April 2007 when he was arrested to £6,588,000 in February that year, and a grand total of £33,055,631.
He is also accused of two counts of entering into an arrangement for money laundering.
Mohmed Patel, of Gibraltar Street, Bolton, is charged with entering into an arrangement for money laundering and using, acquiring or possessing criminal property.
Umer of Cherster Road, Watford, Herts, is charged with acquiring or possessing criminal property and disguising, converting or transferring criminal property.
The three will be tried at Southwark Crown Court on June 14 next year.
Source; ThisIsLancashire.co.uk
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