Published: Wednesday | April 20, 2011

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110420/lead/lead1.html

A Jamaican couple who rolled in millions of pounds sterling while still accepting welfare benefits were yesterday convicted of money laundering in a London court.

Burnett Morris, 48, and his wife, 49-year-old Paulette - who British police say led a large-scale money laundering ring which operated between Jamaica and the UK - were found guilty of conspiracy to launder money.

The court was told that the network used associates and family members to send money to Jamaica, often £900 (J$123,000) at a time.

The cash was reportedly sent almost daily, sometimes up to five times a day.

Over a six-year period, the network reportedly transferred more than £500,000 (J$68 million) to Jamaica.

In addition, Paulette spent more than £250,000 (J$34 million) on travel to and from Jamaica and Florida and on luxury items including designer clothes, a diamond valued at £8,000 (J$1 million), and other jewellery.

But despite being awash with cash, the couple claimed welfare benefits, including housing allowance, Council Tax benefit and free school meals for two of their children.

According to the British authorities, enquiries in Jamaica have shown that the Morrises own two luxurious houses on the outskirts of Kingston.

While given no details of the addresses, the British authorities released pictures of the mansions.

The British authorities also noted that one of these houses was still under construction and Paulette had been ordering expensive building material from Miami, Florida, to be imported to Kingston.

This included a large quantity of marble and a £16,000 (J$2.1 million) sound system.

own racehorses

The British authorities further reported that the Morrises also own at least 14 racehorses, which regularly race at Caymanas Park, Jamaica.

Following the conviction of the two yesterday, the British authorities declared an intention to go after all their assets.

Detective Inspector Gill Barratt, from British Trident's Financial Investigation (Payback) Unit, declared that law-enforcement authorities in the two countries are determined to put criminals out of business by seizing their assets and prosecuting them for money laundering.

"We will continue to effectively work with colleagues in Jamaica to ensure they (the criminals) cannot profit from crime in the UK by sending money home to Jamaica," Barratt said.

"Our intention is to take out the criminal role models in both countries by taking away their homes, cars and other ill-gotten possessions.

"In cases like this, money seized from criminals will go back into tackling crime on both sides of the Atlantic," added Barratt.

The Morrises are to remain in custody until they are sentenced on May 27.

A co-defendant, Kevin Robinson, 40, who was found guilty of transferring criminal property out of the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom (UK), was offered bail.

Four others - Gerard Dean Wright, 28, Fiona Holness, 32, Roisin Keville, 34, Dwayne Samuel, 21 - had pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property out of the jurisdiction of the UK at an earlier hearing.

sending regularly to ja

The British police said Trident's Financial Investigation Unit began a probe after identifying a criminal network based in south London that was sending regular sums of cash to associates in Jamaica through various money agencies.

The prosecution maintained that the cash was the proceeds of Burnett Morris' alleged drug dealing on the streets of south London.

Key suspects were identified in the UK and Jamaica, and the British police worked with officers from the Financial Investigations Division in Kingston to gather evidence against them.

The defendants were arrested on May 14, 2009 at addresses in southeast London and Cambridge during an operation that involved more than 100 officers from Trident and other police units.

When officers searched the Morrises' homes, they found lock-knives, knuckle dusters, machetes and other weapons. More than £4,000 in cash was also seized.

The cash is part of the couple's assets that the law-enforcement agencies want to seize using the Proceeds of Crime Act, which is designed to ensure that crime does not pay, by targeting criminals financially.

British police officers say they will be seeking to confiscate the network's assets in the UK and in Jamaica, working with colleagues here under the Asset Sharing Agreement in place between the two countries.