Gold bars seized from money laundering network

NCA financial investigators took up the case after a Singaporean national was stopped at Heathrow Airport in March 2020, having arrived on a flight from Singapore.

The woman was transiting through the airport to catch a plane to Chennai, India, and Border Force officers found she was carrying the bars in her hand luggage.

She initially told NCA investigators she was taking the bars from a jeweller in Singapore to another jeweller in India. She had no explanation for her strange routing.

The gold was seized as suspected proceeds of crime, and the woman was allowed to continue on her journey.

Further inquiries by the NCA revealed invoices she was carrying for the gold were fake, and the Chennai jeweller did not exist.

Following a two-day hearing at Uxbridge Magistrates on Wednesday (26 January 2022), the NCA was awarded forfeiture of the bars under the Proceeds of Crime Act.