The £1.3 million criminal cash fortune stashed in wardrobe
Police have found £1.33 million hidden in a bedroom of home which was being searched as part of a probe into the death of a Polish lorry driver.
Detectives found more than £1.33 million in cash hidden in a bedroom as they searched a house in connection with the death of a hijacked lorry driver in the West Midlands.
This dramatic image shows the moment police opened two suitcases at the home of Phillip Hartill to find bundle after bundle of £50 and £20 notes.
On a bare mattress in a small bedroom, the suitcases are pictured alongside a weekend bag and two drawers, all full to the brim with wads of cash. The suitcases and holdall held £1.1m and were hidden in a wardrobe. A further £90,000 was stuffed into the pockets of three jackets, and a further £100,000 was hidden in the drawers.
Details of the seizure, the biggest of its kind in the West Midlands, were released for the first time today after a court agreed with police that the money was the profits of raids on lorry drivers. It was found at the home of Phillip Hartill, in Highley near Bridgnorth, as police investigated the death of Polish lorry driver Bogdan Bartczak.
Mr Bartczak was found dead in Dudley in November 2010 after his £250,000 load of televisions was stolen. It is believed he had suffered a heart attack.
Earlier this year, nine men were convicted for offences linked to the robbery, including Hartill's son.
Hartill, aged 56, was initially detained on suspicion of money laundering and handling stolen goods, but was released without any charge.
But police continued their probe into Hartill and a successful application under the Proceeds of Crime Act was brought before a court in Birmingham.
