The sentencing of 30-year old UK native, Tara Hanlon, made headlines this summer following the discovery of “the largest individual cash seizure of 2020 at the UK border”, according to The Independent. Hanlon, who was sentenced to 34 months of prison for money laundering over £5.5 million, was caught red-handed at Heathrow Airport trying to smuggle £1.9 million of undeclared cash stashed in her luggage for a flight to Dubai.
Hanlon was arrested in October 2020. An investigation into her phone records and flight patterns led by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) uncovered evidence that Hanlon had been acting as a courier moving illicit cash to and from Dubai. Hanlon pleaded guilty in June 2020 to three counts of “removing criminal property relating to cash amounts” that totaled “£1.4m on 14 July, £1.1m on 10 August and £1m on 31 August 2020”.
A report by Metro News UK claims that Hanlon was moving the cash for, “Michelle Clarke, whom she had met four years earlier in her home city, Leeds, and who later told her to set up a company for her hairdressing work so an accountant could ‘clean her money up’.” As of time of publication, no Clerk is being pursued by the NCA and yet to be brought into custody.
This is not the first incident of money mules getting caught. In fact, investigators have seen an increase in mules being recruited to move funds for Dubai-based gangs in recent years, states The Daily Express.