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An ex-glamour model who allegedly stashed £5million in suitcases from the UK to Dubai was part of a ring whose members flew business class and gloated as they filmed themselves unloading banknotes, a court was told.
Jo-Emma Larvin, 44, is accused of hiding wads of notes in her luggage before flying it out from London Heathrow to be banked in the Middle East.
A court was told how the alleged cash smugglers had ‘work phones’ accessed only with specific ‘pin numbers’ that were presumably used to speak about the smuggles.
Members of Larvin’s smuggling ring, including Liam Ranbone, were heard to have been recruited by Tara Hanlon, a glamorous kingpin who jurors heard has admitted money-laundering offences.
Andrew Radcliffe, KC, defending Rabon, said: ‘We can now see may things Mr Rabone did not know and could not know at the time.
Glamour model Jo-Emma Larvin, 44, is accused of smuggling money to Dubai
Members of Larvin’s smuggling ring, including Liam Ranbone, were heard to have been recruited by Tara Hanlon (pictured), 32, who earlier admitted money laundering offences
‘He knew of some others flying but he could not of know of all of that back in July, August and September of 2020. We are told there are some 85 trips. But he could of only been aware of a small handful of each of these. He was recruited by a woman he regarded at the time his closest friend, Tara Hanlon. We know she must’ve known what was really going on because she pleaded guilty to all of this.
‘She reassured him at all times the money belonged to a very wealth Qatari man and the money was all completely legitimate.’
Larvin and her partner Jonathan Johnson, 55, allegedly carried £2.8million in September 2020, using ordinary holiday items to disguise the cash.
Larvin and Amy Harrison, 27, also smuggled an estimated £2.2million in seven cases, Isleworth Crown Court has heard.
Larvin and Johnson, along with Harrison, Beatrice Auty, 26, and Liam Rabone, 29, all deny removing criminal property from the UK.
The cash smugglers flew business class so they could take more luggage with them and were paid £3,000 a time, it is claimed.
Auty took three trips to Dubai but is only charged with attempting to remove criminal cash on the third, after the cases were intercepted by the National Crime Agency. She is also accused of assisting on another 11 smuggling runs.
Harrison allegedly two other trips as well as the one she made with Larvin, smuggling £6million, while Rabone took three trips.
The money mules are said to have declared cash once arriving in Dubai, handing over a letter authorising them to carry it from a company called Omnivest.
Julian Christopher KC, prosecuting, told jurors the defendants ‘played a significant part in the transportation of very large amounts of cash’ to Dubai from Heathrow.
Millions of pounds in English and Scottish banknotes were carried in suitcases checked in as luggage, the court heard. Anything over 10,000 Euros leaving the EU has to be declared to HMRC, but the smugglers’ suitcases usually contained up to £500,000, the prosecutor said.
The couriers were paid £3,000 and all their expenses for their trips to Dubai before flying back with ‘their very considerably lighter’ suitcases, jurors heard.
Ms Larvin’s partner Jonathan Johnson (pictured left), 55, is alleged to have travelled with her on the second trip to Dubai in 2020
Prosecutors said Mr Johnson and Ms Larvin (pictured) carried an estimated £2.2million across seven cases in August 2020 and another £2.8million across eight cases in September that year
The organiser, Abdulla Alfalasi, 47, arranged 83 successful trips over 18 months and these defendants were involved in 16 while two more were unsuccessful.
The total amount of cash taken out of the UK in those 83 trips was ‘is in the region of £100m’, the court heard.
Mr Christian told jurors today how the cash smugglers had ‘work phones’ which could be accessed by specific ‘pin numbers’.
Messages accessed from Rabone’s work phone had been deleted after he had shared his pin with a contact who was also travelling out to Dubai.
‘The pin number would obviously give access to the messages on the work phone, presumably the sort of message that says he would be travelling out with cash to Dubai,’ the prosecutor said.
‘Just another inkling at his state of mind as of the need to keep secret [how] he is involved in with the communications in relation to these trips.’
The court also heard how four videos were accessed from Auty’s phone that documented her unpacking bundles of cash after a trip on 3 October 2020.
‘There are photos taken…of lots and lots of bundles of cash laid out on the floor, the video is the unpacking of the cash onto the carrier bags.
The court has heard that couriers were paid about £3,000, as well as expenses, for their trips to Dubai.
The trial continues.
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