£700k in bin bags paid into Walsall bank in money laundering rules case
A customer carrying bin bags full of cash deposited £700,000 in a single day at Walsall's NatWest branch, a court heard.
The incident at the Park Street branch was listed in a court case involving 50 sites where there were breaches in anti-money laundering checks by the bank relating to deposits linked to Bradford-based jeweller Fowler Oldfield.
NatWest has been fined more than £264 million after admitting breaching the regulations.
A hearing at Southwark Crown Court, in London, heard that some £700,000 was paid into the Walsall town centre branch in a single day, with the cash brought through a shopping centre in bin bags.
The cash was too heavy for the bags and had to be repackaged in hessian sacks, but there was so much it could not all be stored in the bank’s floor-to-ceiling safes.
Ms Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, said: “Somebody was walking through the streets with the black bin liners of cash.”
Fowler Oldfield deposited £365 million with the bank over a five-year-period, including £264 million in cash, some of it taken to the Walsall branch.
The company, which was shut down following a police raid in 2016, was initially marked as “high risk” but downgraded in December 2013.
Prosecutor Clare Montgomery QC said the firm purported to be in the business of buying scrap gold which was assayed and sold to jewellers in bars or grain.
Sentencing the bank Mrs Justice Cockerill said: “Throughout the indictment period it is accepted NatWest sought to discharge its obligations under the regulations and that it failed to do so,” the judge said.
“It is not suggested there has been any deliberate flouting of the rules or any criminal intent.”
She fined the bank £264,772,620, ordered it to pay £4,297,466 in costs and made a £460,047 confiscation order.
It is the first time a financial institution has faced criminal prosecution by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under anti-money laundering laws here.
NatWest, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group, in October pleaded guilty to three offences under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, between November 8, 2012 and June 23, 2016.
John Kelsey-Fry QC, defending, said: “The bank realises the seriousness of any failure to successfully discharge” its obligations and expressed “deep regret” on behalf of the board.
“It did not escape the bank’s system, it did not go under the radar. It was identified and subjected to scrutiny. The quality or adequacy of that scrutiny is another matter.”
NatWest chief executive officer Alison Rose said: “NatWest takes its responsibility to prevent and detect financial crime extremely seriously.
“We deeply regret that we failed to adequately monitor one of our customers between 2012 and 2016 for the purpose of preventing money laundering - we will continue to invest significant resources in the ongoing fight against financial crime.”
