{"id":8150,"date":"2019-03-04T16:41:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T16:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/countrywide-fined-215000-over-money-laundering-failings\/"},"modified":"2019-03-04T16:41:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T16:41:08","slug":"countrywide-fined-215000-over-money-laundering-failings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/countrywide-fined-215000-over-money-laundering-failings\/","title":{"rendered":"Countrywide fined \u00a3215,000 over money-laundering failings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Money\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/D442\/production\/_105883345_money2_getty.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Estate agent group Countrywide has been hit with a \u00a3215,000 fine for money-laundering failures by HMRC.<\/p>\n<p>The company was fined for failing to ensure that its money-laundering procedures and record-keeping were in line with regulations.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC also made surprise visits to 50 estate agents in a week to crack down on money-laundering in the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Economic Secretary John Glen said: &#8220;I have zero tolerance for firms prepared to turn a blind eye to the law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Countrywide &#8211; which is due to announce its 2018 results on Thursday &#8211; has not yet responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The details of the fine are included in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/businesses-not-complying-with-money-laundering-regulations-in-2018-to-2019\/current-list-of-businesses-that-have-not-complied-with-the-2017-money-laundering-regulations\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">HMRC list of businesses<\/a> that have not complied with 2017 money-laundering regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Other firms fined include the now-defunct online agency Tepilo, which was charged a \u00a368,595 penalty.<\/p>\n<p>Tax officers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mynewsdesk.com\/uk\/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc\/pressreleases\/estate-agents-targeted-in-money-laundering-crackdown-2842966\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">visited 50 estate agents across England<\/a> after they were suspected of trading without being registered under the money-laundering regulations.<\/p>\n<p>HMRC said it would now take action against businesses that failed to comply, although it has not named any of them.<\/p>\n<p>However, 35 were in London, five in Leicester, four in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire combined, three in Greater Manchester and one in each in Watford, Wakefield and Wolverhampton.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Wallace, Minister for National Security and Economic Crime, said: &#8220;Criminals who seek to use this country as a place to launder money should be in no doubt that they have nowhere to hide. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Estate agents are a crucial line of defence against them and that&#8217;s why they&#8217;re under a legal &#8211; and moral &#8211; obligation to file a report when they spot something amiss.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-47441554\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Estate agent group Countrywide has been hit with a \u00a3215,000 fine for money-laundering failures by HMRC. The company was fined for failing to ensure that its money-laundering procedures and record-keeping were in line with regulations. HMRC also made surprise visits to 50 estate agents in a week to crack down on &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}