London money launderer jailed

In an interesting money laundering case from England, a man has been found guilty of laundering the proceeds from a £5.3 million alcohol smuggling plot and jailed for five and a half years.

Piotr Terpilowski was arrested in August 2011 on suspicion of money laundering offences when officers seized a rucksack he was carrying that was found to contain £20,433. Officers also found £100,000 cash in his car and a further £266,025 hidden in his house. 

Terpilowski was previously a director of Drinks Import Ltd, London, and his partner, Iwona Roman, acted as company secretary. They reported that the business had stopped trading in October 2010. However, investigations showed around £800,000 in cash had been deposited into a bank account of Drinks Import Ltd and transferred to Poland in 2011.

Roman was arrested in March 2012 and paperwork seized during a search showed she had a bank balance of £63,194.68. The money had been received through bank transfers and large cash payments, which were also transferred to Poland - £10,000 a day for a week, even after the initial cash seizures.

Both Terpilowski and Roman were charged with money laundering offences. Roman was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 180 hours community service.

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