Estate agents Stacey Mann Estates Limited, Roman James Estates Limited, and Janice Chissick Estates Limited are among a long list of property and other businesses fined for failing to register in good time with the Inland Revenue as required by anti-money-laundering rules.
Stacey Mann of Falmouth was fined £26,400, Janice Chissick Estates of Chigwell £11,696, and the St Annes firm Roman James Estates £24,780.
The list has been published by HMRC to draw attention to its anti-money laundering requirements. It said 68 estate agents had been fined a total of £519,645 for not complying with rules designed to stop criminals laundering money from illegal activity.
Estate agent Felix Uwuigbe, a director of London firm Century House Estates Ltd in London, was the first to be prosecuted for trading despite not registering with HMRC. He was convicted and sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid community service and banned from acting as an estate agent for three years.
‘We are determined to create a level playing field for businesses who play by the rules. That means taking action against the minority of businesses who fail to fulfil their legal responsibilities under the money laundering regulations’, said HMRC’s deputy director dealing with economic crime, Nick Sharp.
‘Money laundering is not a victimless crime. Our regulations are there to protect businesses from those criminals who would prey on their services to wash their dirty money’.
The full list of businesses not complying with money laundering regulations is published on GOV.UK and includes 175 businesses receiving penalties totalling £2.2m.
HMRC said it is currently investigating a number of other cases of businesses failing to register whilst trading, which could lead to prison sentences of up two years and an unlimited fine.
Businesses can check if they need to register for money laundering supervision on GOV.UK. They can register online for supervision on GOV.UK.
Anyone can report unregistered businesses to HMRC using the online form on GOV.UK.
