Gartree Prisoner Forfeits £8,000
Written by HFM News on 29th January 2019
A convicted murderer, serving his sentence at HMP Gartree near Market Harborough, has had almost £8,000 seized from him in the first action of its kind in the UK.
The man was targeted by a new Ministry of Justice and Police task force set up to disrupt organised crime in prisons.
They acted after a bank account belonging to him received a “number of suspicious high-value deposits.”
They say his bank account was initially frozen before the cash was seized.
The MoJ say the prisoner, who has not been identified, was involved in ‘unlawful activity’ inside the jail, but the government won’t reveal any more details.
They say his bank account was initially frozen before the cash was seized.
Organised criminals in prisons have been known to operate money laundering schemes to receive payment for illicit debts, often as a result of drug deals. Much of the activity takes place through single low-value transactions, making them difficult to find.
Bank accounts on the outside world, used by inmates to pay for drugs, are usually identified through paper notes found in cells which contain account details, or on phones seized from prisoners with instructions to make transfers. Such transactions, which amount to money laundering, are targeted by the unit.
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