68 estate agents fined £500k for money laundering

HMRC has named the 68 estate agents in its latest list that have been fined a total of £519,645 for not complying with rules.

The money laundering regulations aim to prevent criminals from ‘laundering’ money from illegal activity.

The tax collector says that the fines followed the first prosecution of an estate agent covered by the rules for trading without registering with HMRC.

Registration for eligible firms is now a requirement to ensure compliance with money laundering regulations.

In one of the cases cited by HMRC, Felix Uwuigbe, director of Century House Estates Ltd in London, was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid community service and banned from acting as an estate agent for two years after he was convicted of trading for three months while unregistered. 

The punishment of dozens of estate agents is part of a wider crackdown by HMRC on firms breaching the money laundering regulations.

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In its latest full list HMRC has fined 175 businesses which have been hit with penalties totalling £2,180,708. 

This follows the last round of fines in May which saw 147 businesses, including 41 estate agents, receive penalties totalling almost £800,000. 

This latest round of penalties also sees the first business in the arts sector being fined. 

Nick Sharp, deputy director of economic crime at HMRC said: “We are determined to create a level playing field for businesses who play by the rules. That means taking action against the minority of businesses who fail to fulfil their legal responsibilities under the money laundering regulations.

“Money laundering is not a victimless crime. Our regulations are there to protect businesses from those criminals who would prey on their services to wash their dirty money. Serious and organised crime costs the UK billions of pounds every year and our anti-money laundering supervision is a vital tool in combatting that.” 

HMRC is investigating a number of other cases of trading businesses failing to register. Breach of the money laundering rules can lead to prison sentences of up two years and an unlimited fine.

The full list of business can be found on HMRC’s website – Businesses that have not complied with the regulations (2021 to 2022) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

To check if your businesses needs to be registered visit Who needs to register for AML supervision – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). 

HMRC is one of 25 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) supervisors in the UK. HMRC currently supervises around 29,000 businesses across nine different sectors: 

• Money Service Businesses (MSBs) 
• Accountancy Service Providers (ASPs) 
• Trust or Company Service Providers (TCSPs) 
• Estate Agency Businesses (EABs) 
• Letting Agency Businesses (LABs) 
• Art Market Participants (AMPs) 
• High Value Dealers (HVDs) 
• Bill Payment Service Providers 
• IT and Digital Payment Service Providers 

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