The Long Arm of the Serious Crime Prevention Order

15 February 2012

A convicted money launderer originally sentenced to 3.5 years in prison has been sentenced to two more years for failing to stick to the terms of an order designed to make it harder for him to commit further crimes.

In January 2011, following his conviction for money laundering, Raj Koli was made the subject of a Serious Crime Prevention Order to run for five years. The order limited Koli’s access to mobile phones, computers and cars, and made it compulsory for him to report his access to all these things to SOCA. Despite receiving extensive guidance from SOCA, it became clear by April 2011 that Koli had failed to comply with even the most basic of his reporting requirements.

An overheard conversation at a west London petrol station revealed that Koli was feeling the heat of SOCA’s scrutiny. He commented that SOCA was ”all over him” and that he was also the subject of a Confiscation Order. Despite this, Koli failed to notify SOCA that he had access to the vehicle he was driving at the time. The list of provable SCPO breaches grew and in June 2011 Koli was arrested. Further evidence of breaches was recovered at his home including a laptop, mobile phones and several PC tablets.

As a result of his arrest, Koli was recalled to prison by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to serve the remainder of his original sentence and in August 2011 he was charged with multiple breaches of his SCPO. He was found guilty on two counts of breaching his SCPO following a trial at Southwark Crown Court in January and sentenced to 24 months imprisonment for each count, to run concurrently and commence immediately.

In his closing comments, the judge was highly critical of Koli's non-compliance with the terms of his SCPO, stating that Koli had 'demonstrated a cavalier attitude to the requirements of the order' and that he had 'deliberately and repeatedly breached the terms of the order and ignored warnings and reminders'. The judge continued that he was satisfied that 'there was a real risk of continuing or future breaches of the order and a return to criminal behaviour' by Koli, and stated that 'protective orders of this nature require strict compliance, and failure to do so will be dealt with severely'.

Operation Gumia
Koli was arrested for money laundering in October 2007 following the handover of more than £400,000 cash linked to an organised crime group in South London. He was sentenced to 5 years which was later reduced to 3.5 years on appeal.
Operation Gumia saw 11 people sentenced to a total of 60 years including Cavan Hanna and his brother Jamie who received 14 years each on a guilty plea.
Koli still owes most of a £1.6m Confiscation Order and could yet be liable to serve a further default sentence for non-payment.

SOCA continues to monitor compliance with a total of 89 Crown Court SCPOs.
Details of current orders in place, including Financial Reporting Orders and Travel Restriction Orders, can be viewed here. In November 2011, convicted criminal Terry Adams was imprisoned for failing to report his financial affairs to SOCA under the terms of a Financial Reporting Order (read more).

For more information on SCPOs other ancillary orders visit the How We Work section of the website.