Money laundering is the act of trying to turn money raised through criminal activity into ‘clean’ money. It includes handling the benefit acquisitive crimes such as theft, fraud and tax evasion; handling stolen goods; being directly involved with any criminal or terrorist property or entering into arrangements to facilitate the laundering of criminal or terrorist property and criminals investing the proceeds of their crimes in the whole range of financial products.

In the UK, there has been long standing obligation to have effective procedures to prevent and detect money laundering.

The offence of Money Laundering is contained within the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986, The Criminal Justice Act 1988 and The Terrorism Act 2000.

In 2003, The Money Laundering Regulations were passed and updated in December 2007 with their purpose of providing guidance as to what is expected of firms and their staff to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Guidelines have been published for firms such as estate agents who are governed by the Money Laundering Regulations by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG - www.jmlsg.org.uk) to provide an outline for of the legal and regulatory framework for Anti- Money Laundering, an interpretation of the requirements and how they may be implemented in practice, indicate good industry practice and assistance to firms to design and implement systems and controls necessary to mitigate the risks of the firm being used in connection with money laundering and financing of terrorism.