Two jailed for nine years in £5 million money laundering case

Harkishan Talwar was sentenced to serve eight years
City of London Police
Hannah Al-Othman10 August 2015
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Two men have been sentenced to a total of nine years in prison after they were found guilty of laundering nearly £5 million of criminal funds.

Harkishan Talwar, 44, from Southall received two sentences of eight and three years to run concurrently for laundering £3.5 million of criminal funds over a four month period, and Muhammad Khan, 24, from Southall was tried in his absence after breaching his bail conditions in July 2013 by fleeing the country.

He was found guilty of laundering £1.4 million and was sentenced to one year in prison.

Muhammad Khan was sentenced to one year in prison
City of London Police

Their conviction at the Old Bailey followed an investigation by City of London Police.

On January 21, 2013 both men were arrested on suspicion of money laundering after officers witnessed an exchange of £50,000 in cash between them in Talwar’s Range Rover on Hambrough Road, Southall.

A note found on Khan identified that he had taken part in a number of earlier cash handovers totalling £1.4 million, for which he was paid £5,500.

Talwar ran a Money Service Bureau called Fortune Exchange on Earls Court Road, and when police searched the premises they seized £250,000 cash and notebooks belonging to Talwar showing the illegal movements of a further £3.5 million.

Talwar and Khan were charged with money laundering the next day.

In July 2013, following an investigation assisted by the HM Revenue & Customs, Talwar was also charged with further money laundering offences.

Investigating Officer Detective Constable James Nellist from the City of London Police said: "Khan and Talwar were making a lot of money by laundering millions of pounds on behalf of criminals and in doing so played a vital and significant role in enabling serious criminal behaviour.

“Using his position as the director of a Money Service Bureau to help transfer criminal money around the globe in an attempt to make the money look legitimate and hide it from law enforcement agencies, Talwar is as culpable as the criminals he helped.

“This is the force’s second money laundering conviction within a week. These results and the dismantling of criminal enterprises, is a message to those supporting criminal gangs; we will relentlessly pursue and prosecute you”

Chris Gill, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said: "This was a complex operation and we are pleased to have supported our colleagues from the City of London Police. Talwar claimed to run a legitimate Money Service Bureau, but this was merely a front for laundering criminal cash.

"Money laundering is a serious crime and we will take action to bring those responsible before the courts so justice can be served."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in