CPS statement on sentencing of Ian Bowrem

04/11/2010

Head of CPS South East Complex Casework Unit Nigel Pilkington said: “Almost £1 million in cash was found in the boot of Ian Bowrem’s Mercedes when he was stopped on the M4 motorway by police on 23 June 2006. This money represented part of the £53 million proceeds of the Tonbridge Securitas robbery which had taken place 4 months earlier.

"Ian Bowrem had maintained throughout police interviews that the cash was paid to him as a deposit on a Spanish villa he was selling. However, by his plea of guilty to a money laundering offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, he now admits that he suspected the cash represented the proceeds of crime when he took possession of it, although he has pleaded on the basis that he did not realise at the time that the money came from the Securitas robbery.

"Ian Bowrem also pleaded guilty in relation to a similar matter in Devon involving 35,000 Euros of criminal property not connected to the Securitas raid, and the judge took this further offence into consideration when sentencing him.

"This case was painstakingly put together by Kent Police and CPS, and involved extensive international enquiries in Spain, Switzerland and Dubai in order to disprove the account given by Ian Bowrem.  For legal reasons, the case could not proceed until after the main Securitas trials had been completed.

"The sentence in this case sends a clear message to all those who seek to assist in laundering the proceeds of crime, that they will be rigorously pursued by police, prosecuted by CPS and dealt with appropriately by the courts. It also successfully closes another chapter in the story of the Securitas Robbery, CPS Kent's largest ever case."