Montila & Ors, R v

The Committee (Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Steyn, Lord Hope of Craighead, Baroness Hale of Richmond and Lord Carswell) have met and considered the cause Regina v. Montila and others (Appellants) (On Appeal from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)). We have heard counsel on behalf of the appellants and respondents.

This is the considered opinion of the Committee.

This appeal concerns the meaning of words in legislation which was introduced to combat that aspect of criminal conduct which is popularly known as money laundering.

In its typical form money laundering occurs when criminals who profit from their criminal enterprises seek to bring their profits within the legitimate financial sector with a view to disguising their true origin. Their aim is to avoid prosecution for the offences that they committed and confiscation of the proceeds of their offences. Various measures have been taken both internationally and in domestic law aimed at detecting and deterring this activity. They include much closer regulation of the financial sector and the introduction of measures requiring known or suspected money laundering to be reported to the authorities. They also include the enactment of a series of offences to bring the activities of third parties within the reach of the criminal law.

The issue

The appellants, who are nine in number, are awaiting trial in the Crown Court at Canterbury. They were arraigned on 18 December 2002 on three indictments. Each of the three indictments has been laid against three of the appellants. Each of them contains counts laid in pairs against those named in the indictment. Each pair comprises one count of converting the proceeds of drug trafficking, contrary to section 49(2)(b) of the Drug Trafficking Act 1994, and one count of converting the proceeds of criminal conduct, contrary to section 93C(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The particulars of dates, places and sums of money are identical within each pair of counts. It is alleged that between 17 March 2000 and 20 September 2001 in 34 separate transactions the appellants used the services of one or another of two bureaux de change in London to convert a total of over £3m in sterling banknotes into Dutch guilders.

A preparatory hearing took place before Judge van der Bijl at Canterbury under section 29 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996. It was held to resolve a point of law which had been raised about the elements within each of the twin offences that the prosecution must prove to establish guilt. The question is whether it is necessary for the Crown to prove that the property being converted was in fact the proceeds, in the case of the 1994 Act, of drug trafficking and, in the case of the 1988 Act, of crime. The argument for the Crown was that, while it had to prove that the defendants knew or had reasonable grounds to suspect that the property being converted was the proceeds of drug trafficking or of criminal conduct, it did not…

Continue reading Montila & Ors, R v

CaseChat Overview and Summary

Orders of the court

Background to the litigation

Evidence Before The Court

Reasons for decision

Legal Principle Established