James Stunts business’ raided, days after brothers death
Discussion
rustyuk said:
How the hell did they think depositing £1.7 million in cash a day would go unnoticed.
amusingly it wasn't unnoticed, but Natwest did f
k all about it, which is why they got fined nearly £300m "
When it first took on Fowler Oldfield, NatWest initially understood it would not handle cash from the business and that its annual turnover would be around £15m.
However, over the course of the relationship approximately £365m was deposited with the bank, of which around £264m was in cash. At its height, Fowler Oldfield was depositing £1.8m in cash across multiple branches every day.
Staff at the Walsall branch reported in 2015 that thousands of pounds in cash was brought into the branch uncounted in big black bin liners; the weight was so great that the bags would break and staff had to move the cash into stronger hessian sacks.
The prosecution highlighted a litany of failures by both people and technology at NatWest, despite some staff raising internal reports of suspicious activity.
A separate investigation by West Yorkshire Police has led to 11 people pleading guilty to charges relating to the cash deposits and three cash couriers being charged. A further 13 individuals are awaiting trial next year.
"
z4RRSchris said:
rustyuk said:
How the hell did they think depositing £1.7 million in cash a day would go unnoticed.
amusingly it wasn't unnoticed, but Natwest did fk all about it, which is why they got fined nearly £300m "
When it first took on Fowler Oldfield, NatWest initially understood it would not handle cash from the business and that its annual turnover would be around £15m.
However,?over the course of the relationship approximately £365m was deposited with the bank, of which around £264m was in cash. At its height, Fowler Oldfield was depositing £1.8m in cash across multiple branches every day.
Staff at the Walsall branch reported in 2015 that thousands of pounds in cash was brought into the branch uncounted in big black bin liners; the weight was so great that the bags would break and staff had to move the cash into stronger hessian sacks.
The prosecution highlighted a litany of failures by both people and technology at NatWest, despite some staff raising internal reports of suspicious activity.
A separate investigation by West Yorkshire Police has led to 11 people pleading guilty to charges relating to the cash deposits and three cash couriers being charged. A further 13 individuals are awaiting trial next year.
"
SpeckledJim said:
I don't understand how a provincial PAYE Bank Manager doesn't immediately see his career flash before his eyes when this spectacular sort of thing happens whilst his tellers are patiently counting out £5 for Doris and Deirdre at the next counter.
I bet the staff there have some wild stories to tell! z4RRSchris said:
rustyuk said:
How the hell did they think depositing £1.7 million in cash a day would go unnoticed.
amusingly it wasn't unnoticed, but Natwest did fk all about it, which is why they got fined nearly £300m https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/natwest...
In other "unrelated matters", has a Terry Adams been seen or heard of in recent months.....?
It is remarkable that it went unchecked.
Every financial services company I have worked in has strong anti-money laundering controls (AML). They have had rigidly enforced annual AML training, testing and attestation for every employee, from the CEO to the secretaries. The three stages of Placement, Layering and Integration are all covered. The penalties and sanctions are covered and the required internal escalation process in drilled into you. I assume that Nat West must do the same.
It is therefore difficult to believe that someone in Nat West wasn't being paid to turn a blind eye. Either that or they were terminally stupid. Neither is good.
Every financial services company I have worked in has strong anti-money laundering controls (AML). They have had rigidly enforced annual AML training, testing and attestation for every employee, from the CEO to the secretaries. The three stages of Placement, Layering and Integration are all covered. The penalties and sanctions are covered and the required internal escalation process in drilled into you. I assume that Nat West must do the same.
It is therefore difficult to believe that someone in Nat West wasn't being paid to turn a blind eye. Either that or they were terminally stupid. Neither is good.
AstonZagato said:
It is remarkable that it went unchecked.
Every financial services company I have worked in has strong anti-money laundering controls (AML). They have had rigidly enforced annual AML training, testing and attestation for every employee, from the CEO to the secretaries. The three stages of Placement, Layering and Integration are all covered. The penalties and sanctions are covered and the required internal escalation process in drilled into you. I assume that Nat West must do the same.
It is therefore difficult to believe that someone in Nat West wasn't being paid to turn a blind eye. Either that or they were terminally stupid. Neither is good.
they used 50 different banks across the UK, so it really just points to a terrible system in place rather than bribing the whole of natwest. Every financial services company I have worked in has strong anti-money laundering controls (AML). They have had rigidly enforced annual AML training, testing and attestation for every employee, from the CEO to the secretaries. The three stages of Placement, Layering and Integration are all covered. The penalties and sanctions are covered and the required internal escalation process in drilled into you. I assume that Nat West must do the same.
It is therefore difficult to believe that someone in Nat West wasn't being paid to turn a blind eye. Either that or they were terminally stupid. Neither is good.
SpeckledJim said:
z4RRSchris said:
rustyuk said:
How the hell did they think depositing £1.7 million in cash a day would go unnoticed.
amusingly it wasn't unnoticed, but Natwest did fk all about it, which is why they got fined nearly £300m "
When it first took on Fowler Oldfield, NatWest initially understood it would not handle cash from the business and that its annual turnover would be around £15m.
However,?over the course of the relationship approximately £365m was deposited with the bank, of which around £264m was in cash. At its height, Fowler Oldfield was depositing £1.8m in cash across multiple branches every day.
Staff at the Walsall branch reported in 2015 that thousands of pounds in cash was brought into the branch uncounted in big black bin liners; the weight was so great that the bags would break and staff had to move the cash into stronger hessian sacks.
The prosecution highlighted a litany of failures by both people and technology at NatWest, despite some staff raising internal reports of suspicious activity.
A separate investigation by West Yorkshire Police has led to 11 people pleading guilty to charges relating to the cash deposits and three cash couriers being charged. A further 13 individuals are awaiting trial next year.
"
Backhanders
Part of the scheme
Check out the BABS RM thread in the business forum
dudleybloke said:
Has to be insiders in the bank, everyone else gets the Spanish inquisition for relatively small amounts of cash these days.
You're mixing up business banking with personal banking. If you deposit above a certain amount of money personally, the bank will need to be confident the source is legitimate, else it will get into trouble. However, the processes for business banking are different - plenty of businesses are depositing tens of thousands of pounds perfectly legitimately, so they won't usually query daily deposits, but the bank should instead look at the overall risk profile of the business - probably this is where the bank was deficient.
z4RRSchris said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
it was used to buy gold (at places like stunts) which is now long gone. i imagine the machine went like this, which is highly unsophisticated and terrible laundering, gold isn't a cash business to start with.
you give £100 to Fowler Oldfield
They deposit it in cash into natwest
they use that to buy gold at stunts / other places
they give you back £93 in gold / transfer
James Stunt arcade machine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yjLjBFq9FE
SpeckledJim said:
z4RRSchris said:
rustyuk said:
How the hell did they think depositing £1.7 million in cash a day would go unnoticed.
amusingly it wasn't unnoticed, but Natwest did fk all about it, which is why they got fined nearly £300m "
When it first took on Fowler Oldfield, NatWest initially understood it would not handle cash from the business and that its annual turnover would be around £15m.
However,?over the course of the relationship approximately £365m was deposited with the bank, of which around £264m was in cash. At its height, Fowler Oldfield was depositing £1.8m in cash across multiple branches every day.
Staff at the Walsall branch reported in 2015 that thousands of pounds in cash was brought into the branch uncounted in big black bin liners; the weight was so great that the bags would break and staff had to move the cash into stronger hessian sacks.
The prosecution highlighted a litany of failures by both people and technology at NatWest, despite some staff raising internal reports of suspicious activity.
A separate investigation by West Yorkshire Police has led to 11 people pleading guilty to charges relating to the cash deposits and three cash couriers being charged. A further 13 individuals are awaiting trial next year.
"
Plus branch managers don't sit looking at their tills all day, they are spending their time trying to find new business.
If nothing is done then those deposits will show as a positive for their revenue target because cash costs money to bank.
So they can either carry on taking cash even if it looks dodgy or they can end up on a performance management plan for failing to meet revenue targets.
sugerbear said:
SpeckledJim said:
z4RRSchris said:
rustyuk said:
How the hell did they think depositing £1.7 million in cash a day would go unnoticed.
amusingly it wasn't unnoticed, but Natwest did fk all about it, which is why they got fined nearly £300m "
When it first took on Fowler Oldfield, NatWest initially understood it would not handle cash from the business and that its annual turnover would be around £15m.
However,?over the course of the relationship approximately £365m was deposited with the bank, of which around £264m was in cash. At its height, Fowler Oldfield was depositing £1.8m in cash across multiple branches every day.
Staff at the Walsall branch reported in 2015 that thousands of pounds in cash was brought into the branch uncounted in big black bin liners; the weight was so great that the bags would break and staff had to move the cash into stronger hessian sacks.
The prosecution highlighted a litany of failures by both people and technology at NatWest, despite some staff raising internal reports of suspicious activity.
A separate investigation by West Yorkshire Police has led to 11 people pleading guilty to charges relating to the cash deposits and three cash couriers being charged. A further 13 individuals are awaiting trial next year.
"
Plus branch managers don't sit looking at their tills all day, they are spending their time trying to find new business.
If nothing is done then those deposits will show as a positive for their revenue target because cash costs money to bank.
So they can either carry on taking cash even if it looks dodgy or they can end up on a performance management plan for failing to meet revenue targets.
Seems folk are being incentivised to do the wrong things.
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