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By Louise Male
A MORLEY man has been sentenced to four years prison for money laundering. Barry Ward, 39, of Pullman Court, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after pleading guilty to money laundering offences, making a false statement to procure a passport, and forgery.
He appeared beside Monica Walsh, 50, of Birk Lane, Morley, who was sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to connection with a money laundering arrangement.
Both were prosecuted following an investigation by the National Crime Squad's Calder Branch.
The court heard how, over two days in July 2004, Ward visited around 20 different bureaux de change across West Yorkshire and exchanged a total of £45,000 into euros. On some occasions he gave a false name.
In November 2004 he was seen to meet an unknown man in a secluded lay-by outside York. The man handed a bag to Ward who put it in the rear of his car.
When Ward was arrested on the A65 Rawdon Road travelling back to Leeds, officers discovered two bags containing a total of £100,000 in cash, which was shrink-wrapped, in the boot of his BMW, hidden beneath motorcycle clothing.
In the same month police officers searching the home of Monica Walsh found £40,000 cash and a money-counting machine in a drawer under a bed.
Walsh admitted to police the cash belonged to Ward and that she had looked after large amounts of cash for him before. In March 2005 Ward was arrested again after attempting to fraudulently obtain a passport.
In a statement made at the passport office in Durham, he claimed his passport and birth certificate had been destroyed in a garden fire.
Both documents had in fact been seized by the National Crime Squad when he had been arrested in November the previous year.
A search of his home revealed a further passport on which there had been an attempt to replace the existing photograph of the holder with his own.
"When Ward was initially arrested we recovered a large amount of cash which was inconsistent with his personal circumstances," said Detective Chief Inspector Lee Kirkby of the National Crime Squad.
"The Proceeds of Crime Act is a valuable new weapon in the fight against organised crime and it is one of the many tools the National Crime Squad will use.
"The money seized from Ward's car and from Walsh will now be the focus of a financial hearing to be held in the future."
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