NatWest banked cash from ‘sophisticated’ money-laundering scheme, court hears

Sophisticated operation tried to receive criminal cash in such a way that gold dealer could persuade NatWest it was part of ordinary business operations

NatWest was banking laundered street cash for an English gold dealer in sums equivalent to the takings of a Premier League football stadium on a match day.

NatWest was banking laundered street cash for an English gold dealer in sums equivalent to the takings of a Premier League football stadium on match day as part of a “sophisticated” money laundering operation, an English court has heard.

Jurors sitting at one of the UK’s largest ever money-laundering trials heard that the gold dealer, Fowler Oldfield, deposited some £266m (€317m) through the bank between 2014 and 2016. It was “blindingly obvious” that the money, couriered to the dealer in holdalls and sports bags, was criminal in origin, prosecutors said.

“This was a sophisticated operation to receive criminal cash in such a way that Fowler Oldfield could then persuade NatWest that it was just part of their ordinary business operations,” prosecution lawyer Nicholas Clarke said at the trial in Leeds.

The bank deposits would range between £780,000 and £2.4m, with an average daily amount of £1.7m. 

Eight people linked with Fowler Oldfield are on trial for concealing cash in one of the largest prosecutions of money laundering that the UK has ever seen. They all deny the charges.

Jurors were shown video of an employee at Fowler Oldfield sorting notes rolled up into £5,000 bundles. 

“No legitimate source has ever been identified for it,” the court heard. CCTV footage from the dealership showed that staff didn’t ask for identification from couriers, and ledgers were left blank -- sometimes with just a codeword next to an entry, the jurors heard. 

In return, couriers might be given a token like a £5 note or $1 bill. 

The bags of cash, some with an “abnormally large” number of Scottish notes or those with an “unusual smell” were then delivered to NatWest counting centres across the country, the court heard.