Published on Sat Nov 06 13:16:49 GMT 2010

http://www.wscountytimes.co.uk/news/regional/man_jailed_for_laundering_securitas_cash_1_1597952

A company director has been jailed for three years and nine months for money laundering some of the cash stolen in the £53 million Securitas robbery in Tonbridge.

Of the £990,180 in cash found in the boot of Ian Bowrem's blue Mercedes, about £380,000 was identified as having been stolen from the raided depot.

Bowrem, 46, pleaded guilty to a charge of concealing criminal property on the basis that he did not know the money had come from the heist when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court in July.

Sentencing him at the same court, Judge Philip Statman said: "It is not every day of the week that car boots have a content of this kind found in them and subsequent investigations reveal that the notes contained therein could be directly linked to the infamous Securitas robbery."

However he said the Crown accepted Bowrem did not realise the source of the cash, although he had to have been suspicious that it had been gotten through criminal means.

"You were prepared to take this risk and accept this cash against a background of your being a highly intelligent man with a qualification in accountancy," the judge added.

He said he had taken Bowrem's guilty plea into account when sentencing him, although he had to acknowledge he had not entered it until relatively recently in the proceedings.

Bowrem went on trial for the offence with cage fighter Jeremy Bailey in February but it had to be abandoned for administrative reasons.

Following Bowrem's guilty plea, prosecutors decided to drop the case against Bailey, of Manor Road, Basingstoke, and offered no further evidence.

Police arrested the pair after they met in a pub car park in Twickenham, south-west London, on June 23, 2006.