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ARTICLE · 25 JULY 2022

Money Laundering Cases: Prosecutions

BCL Solicitors LLP
BCL Solicitors LLP
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BCL Solicitors LLP

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Given the seriousness with which the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘POCA') treats money laundering offences (with maximum sentences of 14 years for the main offences)...

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
John Binns
John Binns
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In this chapter John Binns discusses the prosecution of money laundering and explores sentencing guidelines.

Is a prosecution inevitable?

Given the seriousness with which the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘POCA') treats money laundering offences (with maximum sentences of 14 years for the main offences), it may seem inevitable that where the authorities have sufficient evidence to prosecute, they will do so (absent seriously compelling public interest factors against).

It must be remembered, however, that the concept of money laundering under POCA is sufficiently broad that there are necessarily huge numbers of cases where relatively low-level crime (such as shoplifting, low-value benefit fraud, and some drugs offences) is dealt with by way of simple or conditional cautions, and the laundering that (technically speaking) may have taken place is either included in that outcome, or not pursued at all.

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