Ex-Met Police officer revealed as mole in £5m money laundering operation
The 62-year-old helped criminals move cash across the UK and United Arab Emirates over five years
An ex-Metropolitan Police officer who helped launder £5m of criminal cash domestically and overseas has been jailed. Neil Sinclair unlawfully accessed police systems and shared sensitive information with members of an organised crime group in a ploy spanning five years.
The 62-year-old facilitated the transfer of £1.5m in cash from the UK to the United Arab Emirates and, under instruction from a Dubai-based offender, moved funds, with others, within the UK in excess of £3.5 million. This took place between February 2016 and March 2021 when Sinclair was both a serving officer and police staff.
An investigation was launched by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in September 2020 following a referral from the London force. Charges were brought against Sinclair in February 2021, with the crook pleading guilty to three counts of misconduct in public office and two counts of entering into an arrangement to facilitate the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by or on behalf of another person in June of this year.
Prior to his guilty pleas, the former officer was subject to a trial alongside five other men and a woman, none of whom were part of any police force. This group were charged with various offences including the latter of the above.
Having admitted the serious corruption offences, Sinclair was handed nine years behind bars at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (October 31).
Amanda Rowe, director of the IOPC, said: "The offending by Neil Sinclair, spanning several years, was a deliberate and prolonged pattern of criminal behaviour. The police are responsible for disrupting and dismantling organised criminal gangs, but this officer chose to join them.
"He played a key role in a substantial money laundering operation and abused his position to provide the gang with confidential police information. This was a profound breach of the trust placed in him by both the public and the force.
"The seriousness of his actions is reflected in the sentence handed down today, and it sends a strong message that facilitating criminal activity will not be tolerated."
Sinclair was dismissed from Metropolitan Police in October 2021. He retired from the force in 2017 but returned as police staff in January 2019.
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