Agents have been told that they must tip off the authorities when they have suspicions of money laundering.
Security minister Ben Wallace said that estate agents submitted just 710 reports of suspicions in the last financial year, way behind the 5,036 submitted by accountants and the 2,660 alerts from lawyers.
Wallace said: “Estate agents are a crucial line of defence against them [money launderers] and that’s why they’re under a legal and moral obligation to file a report when they spot something amiss.
“It’s wrong to think of money laundering as a victimless crime.
“Those with dirty cash to clean don’t just sit on it: they reinvest it in serious organised crime, from drug importation to child sexual exploitation, human trafficking and even terrorism.”
The Government’s call for agents to report their suspicions is backed by both the NAEA and RICS.
Agents belonging to both bodies were apparently filmed in the 2015 C4 programme, From Russia With Cash, which appeared to show estate agents helping a clearly dodgy Russian buyer purchase a property.
The RICS later expelled, EYE believes, two agents. The NAEA kept its action under wraps.
RICS set to expel estate agent who appeared in From Russia With Cash
Comments (7)
We can bleat all we like but the fact is the law is there and we have to work with it. One of the reasons we are required to carry out AML checks is because we are usually the first part of the process before people instruct a solicitor and fill out a mortgage application.
That gives three chances of someone being found out.
I also see AMLR checks as being a good discipline to reduce the risk of property fraud which particularly targets vulnerable people such as the elderly.
I don’t see the problem of doing Suspicious Activity Reports and it is a moral thing in many respects when properties are being used as for people trafficking especially in respect of the sex trade.
The scary thing though is the numbers. 710 SARs across the industry in a year means that we, a medium size county firm, is responsible for 1% of them!
That’s not just down to estate agents, the NCA and HMRC need to engage with our industry far better at local level and work with us, not seemingly against us.
As others have said already, gangsters don’t walk in with bags full of used notes. I’ve never sold a property for cash!
The solicitors and lenders deal with the financial checks.
If estate agents started to report every potential vendor or purchaser because they had a scar on their cheek, an expensive watch and went by the name Mad-dog or something equally ridiculous, how long would it be before more of us were found in suitcases bobbing along the Thames?
Here’s an idea, stop the importation of drugs, and stop allowing the low-life local dealer to become Mr Big and gain wealth in the first place!
After all, my taxes pay for that service, they don’t pay for me or my staff to become a free police service, and they certainly don’t pay us to put ourselves at risk, given that we often meet people in empty houses alone!
What i would like to know….How many of the over 8,000 reported cases of suspicious potential money laundering activity resulted in a criminal investigation?
It’s always puzzled me how agents are suppose to do this to any sensible degree.
We list a house we take I.D. and address. We sell a house we take I.d. and address.
We do not verify with an certainty and without any legal requirement where the funds of the purchase or equity within a house come from.
Unless the individual is basically telling us they are money laundering. How are we suppose to know?
Are they asking as to report individuals on stereotypes? I.e. if he looks like a gangster and lives in a big house we should report him?
This is why solicitors are in place. They make the necessary checks.
I’ve been saying exactly this since the legislation for agents to do it came into force.
NAEA/RICS do not have a clue – the Gov/NCA should be looking more closely at the Bankers – “follow the money!”
Unless someone walks into the office with a bagful of cash (or a C4 camera team), then their chances of having any suspicion of ML are probably on a par with winning the lottery jackpot.
“Those with dirty cash to clean don’t just sit on it”
They put it in a Tesco bag and hand to the Estate Agent (not)