Law on buying cars with cash

[okenemem]

Mate of mine bought a audi tt , from a car dealer. He paid 16 grand cash notes.

My understanding of the law is that if you go to a car dealer with that amount of cash police would be called and you would be arrested for money laundering.

[Great Pretender]

Where the clustered fk did you hear that from?

[okenemem]

Everyone knows that if u walk into a dealers with alot of cash alarms will be raised

[Truckosaurus]

Yes, it is the famous "Piggy Bank Act" of 2009. It is now against the human rights of a piggy bank to be more than 2/3rd full.

Also, if you ask an ATM to dispense £300 a siren will sound and red smoke will be emitted from the card slot.

[Acheron]

You can be arrested for money laundering if you cannot prove or do not have legit grounds for having that type of money. Its down to you to prove where the money came from legally.

If your mate produces bank invoices, pay slips etc supporting this, then there is no offence.

If your mate is a drug dealer and cant prove that the money comes through a legit channel, then the cops have a big party.

[chard]

The dealer is under a legal obligation to report any cash transaction over 15,000 euros to the authorities (not the rozzers FFS). So most dealers choose to set an £8000 stirling limit (exchange rates have changed over the last few years!!) so they did not have to employ (yet another) compliancy officer to deal with this.

[MitchT]

Acheron said:

If your mate is a drug dealer and cant prove that the money comes through a legit channel, then the cops have a big party.

... at least they do once they've found the drugs.

[okenemem]

Sorry to sound stupid , but what authorities are talking about

[covboy]

With all the recent hoo ha about the Man City footballer and his daily collection of parking fines, it was stated (i know it was the Sun!) that when stopped by ht Police one time he had £25000 cash on the front seat with him. When asked why he carried that much cash he allegedly replied “because I can”

ETA This is from a man who can't dress himself - google Mario Balatelli!

[chard]

okenemem said:

Sorry to sound stupid , but what authorities are talking about

HMRC

[Jasandjules]

okenemem said:

My understanding of the law is that if you go to a car dealer with that amount of cash police would be called and you would be arrested for money laundering.

You are mistaken.

The dealer should report it to HMRC (IIRC) so there is a log of it. Basically, your mate might be asked to explain where he got the cash from - which is usually a simple case of providing the bank withdrawal....

[okenemem]

Jasandjules said:

You are mistaken.

The dealer should report it to HMRC (IIRC) so there is a log of it. Basically, your mate might be asked to explain where he got the cash from - which is usually a simple case of providing the bank withdrawal....

How long do u think it will take before they contact him

[Gallen]

Jasandjules said:

You are mistaken.

The dealer should report it to HMRC (IIRC) so there is a log of it. Basically, your mate might be asked to explain where he got the cash from - which is usually a simple case of providing the bank withdrawal....

...OK

so you have a decent paid job. You withdraw money here and there. Not major amounts - but you dont spend it all. You buy a few things with it - maybe a motorbike, a few boys toys etc. You sell them and have a large amount of cash. This isn't an unreasonable situation. However, if asked, you couldnt prove exactly how you have the money as you never took out large amounts (..why the fk should you have to PROVE this? - You pay tax, are hard working and lucky enough to have a good job and a regular wage). Over the years youve bought a few things, kept them then decided to sell them all to buy one nice car.

Not really a strange position to be in is it really??? (I dont think it is anyway)

[BertBert]

okenemem said:

Mate of mine bought a audi tt , from a car dealer. He paid 16 grand cash notes

then

okenemem said:

My understanding of the law is that if you go to a car dealer with that amount of cash police would be called and you would be arrested for money laundering.

Well were they and was he?

[PintOfKittens]

Gallen said:

Jasandjules said:

You are mistaken.

The dealer should report it to HMRC (IIRC) so there is a log of it. Basically, your mate might be asked to explain where he got the cash from - which is usually a simple case of providing the bank withdrawal....

...OK

so you have a decent paid job. You withdraw money here and there. Not major amounts - but you dont spend it all. You buy a few things with it - maybe a motorbike, a few boys toys etc. You sell them and have a large amount of cash. This isn't an unreasonable situation. However, if asked, you couldnt prove exactly how you have the money as you never took out large amounts (..why the fk should you have to PROVE this? - You pay tax, are hard working and lucky enough to have a good job and a regular wage). Over the years youve bought a few things, kept them then decided to sell them all to buy one nice car.

Not really a strange position to be in is it really??? (I dont think it is anyway)

Even worse than that, but IIRC money laundering isnt "Beyond All Reasonable Doubt", but "Balance of Probabilities" if the police wanna sieze it. And I believe the local plod get 50% of it, or something.

[Deva Link]

Gallen said:

Not really a strange position to be in is it really??? (I dont think it is anyway)

I think that's a very strange position to be in.

OK, you can make up scenarios, but I can't think of a legitimate reason why a normal person would have £16K in cash.

It's OK if you're a certain religion though, because they don't use banks so only deal in cash.

[chard]

okenemem said:

He paid 16 grand cash notes.

Why???????????????????????

[alangla]

chard said:

okenemem said:

He paid 16 grand cash notes.

Why???????????????????????

+1 - why? If he's got it in his bank account, why not just use his debit card???? It's a hell of a lot safer & saves so much hassle. Last time I bought a car it was a Visa debit card into a bog-standard Chip & Pin machine and an eye-watering number on the (same as any other transaction) till receipt!! (and yes, I did check the decimal point was in the right place! )
The dealer did say to me that transactions that size normally resulted in a "call bank/card issuer" message though mine went through via a normal online authorisation.

[mel]

Deva Link said:

I think that's a very strange position to be in.

OK, you can make up scenarios, but I can't think of a legitimate reason why a normal person would have £16K in cash.

It's OK if you're a certain religion though, because they don't use banks so only deal in cash.

I can, It's not unusual for me to have upto £5K ish around and avaliable, I tend to simply collect and squirrel it then buy daft things or go on holidays, add into that the sale of a couple of toys (I've often privately sold cars and bikes and been paid upto £5K in cash) it wouldn't be hard if someone was a bit more extreme than me for them to have that sort of money kicking around.

It also depends on what industry you work in I know several people who work in legitimate trades from sparkies, builders, roofers, plumbers even carpet fitters who struggle to spend their cash pots. They often get paid cash, their overheads are paid from their bank accounts where the majority of their income goes into, banks charge something like 50p per £100 to simply pay cash into a business account so they just end up with a pile that grows (now days remember that copper is up around £4-£5K / tonne for scrap and scrap is always paid in cash)

[mel]

oh yes, I think the norm now days is to convert cash that you wish to remain outside the system into pre pay credit cards, £5k per card, no credit or identity checks. I've seen them in the names of all sorts of family pets .