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Anti-money laundering expert
receives suspended sentence
THE FORMER chair of a UK group
Thorncroft is a former chair of the
that represents the payment services
Association of UK Payment
industry has been sentenced for an
Institutions who worked with
offence in connection with the
lawmakers and financial regulators
laundering of the proceeds of an
alike in providing anti-money
investment fraud worth £850,000
laundering advice and training.
and involving more than 60 victims.
Thorncroft held himself to be an
Dominic Thorncroft, aged 56, was
anti-money laundering expert whose
sentenced to 18 months’
role was to protect members of the
imprisonment suspended for 18
public and businesses from
months at Southwark Crown Court
economic crime. However, he was a
in relation to one count of failing to
professional enabler to fraudsters,
alert the authorities to money
allowing his business to transfer
laundering, one count of breaching
their criminal proceeds abroad.
money laundering regulations and,
An investigation conducted by the
in addition, four counts of retaining
Metropolitan Police Service, and
a wrongful credit.
which began in 2016, found evidence
14
that linked Thorncroft to an
investment fraud which took place in
2014. This investigation revealed that
Thorncroft had allowed his Money
Service Bureau business to be used
by fraudsters to transfer money to
Hong Kong and China.
Failure to alert
The Crown Prosecution Service
(CPS) and the police were able to
prove Thorncroft should have
known (or at the very least
suspected) that the money passing
through his business’ bank accounts
was criminal property. However,
Thorncroft failed to alert the
authorities to the suspicious activity
and allowed it to continue.
Stephane Pendered, prosecutor for
the CPS’ Specialist Fraud Division,
commented: “Dominic Thorncroft
did not commit the fraud himself.
However, his actions have allowed
the sum of £850,000 defrauded from
60 different individuals to be
dispersed around the world.”
Pendered went on to state:
“Thorncroft promoted himself as an
anti-money laundering expert, but
then failed to live up to the standards
he set for others.”
IT MANAGER Barry
Stannard has been sentenced
at Chelmsford Crown Court
to five years and four months’
imprisonment for defrauding
the NHS and HMRC out of
circa £800,000.
Stannard pleaded guilty to
two charges of fraud by false
representation and two further
charges of cheating the public
revenue. The total amount of
money defrauded by Stannard
over a seven-year period was
in fact £806,229.80.
The sentencing comes at a
time when the NHS Counter
Fraud Authority (NHSCFA)
has renewed its focus on
procurement fraud and is
encouraging more people to
disclose any suspicion of such
conduct through the
established reporting lines.
Chelmsford-based
Stannard, aged 53, committed
the offences outlined when he
was employed as the head of
unified communications at the
Mid-Essex Hospital Services
NHS Trust.
London fraudster jailed for failing to
pay substantial Confiscation Order
DURING AN enforcement
hearing held at Westminster
Magistrates’ Court on Monday 2
August, fraudster Jolan Saunders
was jailed for almost nine years for
failing to pay his multi-million
pound Confiscation Order.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO)
secured convictions against
Saunders and his co-conspirators
Michael Strubel and Spencer
Steinberg in 2015, showing that
the men deceived people into
investing in Saunders Electrical
Wholesale Ltd by lying about
supply contracts.
The fraudsters overstated minor
contracts with the Hilton,
Marriott, Plaza and Holiday Inn
hotel chains and lied about a non-existent
contract to supply the
Olympic Village for the London
2012 Olympic Games.
Saunders, Strubel and Steinberg
took almost £80 million from
investors from their London base
and spent it on yachts, expensive
property and luxury cars. As a
result, Saunders and Strubel were
each jailed for seven years, while
Steinberg was jailed for six years
and nine months.
After an investigation by the
SFO’s Proceeds of Crime team
uncovered that Saunders held
millions of pounds in criminal
assets, he was ordered to pay
£5,262,301.03 in order to
compensate his victims.
Despite the SFO showing clear
evidence of Saunders’ £4.5 million
in hidden assets from his fraud, he
has made no attempt to use this
money to pay his Confiscation
Order. Instead, Saunders has
stalled and asserted, without
evidence, that he hopes to pay the
Confiscation Order through
“major project works at blue chip
hotels” (echoing the false claims
made to those he defrauded).
ON TUESDAY 6 July, a Brigg-based
security company and
its manager pleaded guilty at
Bradford and Keighley
Magistrates’ Court to
supplying unlicensed security
for a Bradford nightclub.
Liberty Security Solutions
was fined £540 plus a victim
surcharge of £54 and court
costs of £1,050 payable within
28 days. Acting manager
Basharat Bashir was fined
£176 and is also required to
pay a victim surcharge of £30
plus court costs of £1,050.
Earlier this year, the
Security Industry Authority
prosecuted Abbas Ali Shah for
working illegally at the
nightclub. West Yorkshire
Police investigated the venue
and discovered that signing-in
sheets had been completed by
an unlicensed security
operative. Shah had worked
illegally between 11 November
2018 and 17 March 2019.
Senior IT manager
sentenced for
£800,000 fraud
Fines issued over
unlicensed
security
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