Ex-bank manager sentenced for £255,000 money laundering operation

Smalley pleaded guilty to this charge at Coventry Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 23 March.

Smalley had worked for Barclays Bank for 14 years and was the bank manager at a Coventry branch. On six occasions, between February and October 2020, she arranged to take in bags of low value £10 and £20 notes from an unnamed man {‘K’) and replaced them with ‘clean’ bank-ordered £50 notes. The amounts varied between £25,000 and £65,000 in each transaction, with an overall amount of £255,000 involved in these offences.

Money obtained from certain crimes is termed ‘dirty’ and needs to be ‘cleaned’ to appear to have been derived from legal activities, such that banks and other financial institutions will deal with it without suspicion.

Exchanging cash in this way, without any audit trail of it passing through a customer bank account, ran contrary to Barclays Bank’s anti-money-laundering policies, which set a maximum cap of £100.00 for cash exchanges.

Smalley’s case illustrates how organised criminals can seek to use professional facilitators to launder their criminal proceeds.

Andrew Cant of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Smalley held a position of responsibility at the bank and, as an experienced manager, she must have known that her actions were contrary to the bank’s money laundering rules. Her arrangement to exchange large quantities of cash for the unnamed individual was deeply suspicious.”

Cant went on to conclude: “For those who work in the financial services sector, this case highlights the importance of always ensuring compliance with money laundering procedures.”

The Crown Prosecution Service is committed to work alongside law enforcement and investigatory authorities in order to prosecute economic crime, including where and when it’s identified in the financial services sector.