Crime Solicitors

Company director Gary Booker has been jailed for three-and-a-half years, after Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards – working with Thames Valley Police – found that a firm of cowboy roofers had most likely also posed as Trading Standards officers and fleeced victims of more money.

The crime was uncovered when, in 2013, two elderly Buckinghamshire residents were fleeced by cowboy roofers of around £300,000 for work, valued at £577.

The couple thought that they would get their money back, however, when Trading Standards officers arrived at their home to say they had recovered the money.

However, the trading standards officers were bogus – believed to be part of the same cowboy roofing gang. They then defrauded the couple out of a further £600,000 in up front fees to get their money back.

Officers from Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards working with Thames Valley Police uncovered a trail that linked £435,000 of the Amersham couple's payments to the account of a company called Construction Connected.

At Aylesbury Crown Court, sole company director Gary Andrew Booker, 55, of Queens Avenue, Byfleet in Surrey was found guilty on 17 counts of money laundering under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

The court was told that Booker had allowed £435,000 to be paid into his business account, which was then quickly paid out in cash amounts of between £10,000 and £60,000.

He told investigating officers he had been asked by a man to whom his former business supplied lorries for block paving whether he could “stick money through your account” for a big tarmac job.

Booker said he agreed to let him do this for 15% commission – around £46,000 – provided the arrangement was “all above board”, but said there were no receipts and the money paid in was always cash.

Booker said he could not recall individual transactions, but they did not give him “any cause for concern” and he treated them as business transactions, denying that he had “turned a blind eye” to them.

Sentencing, Recorder Harold Persaud told Booker:

“You facilitated the conspiracy by allowing the conspirators to utilise your company accounts.

“This type of conspiracy only succeeds when there is a conduit to allow the laundering of the money – I do not accept that you had a limited function under direction. Your part was very proximate to the conspiracy.”

Investigating officer Tim Day said Trading Standards had now applied to the Crown Court for an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover the laundered money through a confiscation order.

Duncan Lewis Business Crime Solicitors

Duncan Lewis business crime solicitors can advise at any stage of a charge involving business crimes, including money laundering, company fraud, investment fraud, false accounting, embezzlement, tax and VAT evasion, IT crime/hacking and white collar crime.

There are Duncan Lewis offices nationwide and in most major cities – and a criminal defence solicitor can usually reach a police station for interview under caution within an hour.

Duncan Lewis can also advise on dawn raids and the Proceeds of Crime Act – and can liaise with investigating authorities such as SFO, FCA, BIS, HMRC, Insolvency Service, Trading Standards or City of London Police.

For expert legal advice on all business crimes, call Duncan Lewis business crime solicitors on 0333 772 0409.

For 24/7 help at a police station, call the Duncan Lewis Solicitors 24-Hour Emergency Helpline on 0333 772 0607.