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Perth man had bundles of notes concealed in his home and moved the proceeds of crime, the AFP said.
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Cash courier with hidden $3.6m jailed for 4 years
18 January 2024
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A West Australian man who had more than $3.6 million concealed in his home has been sentenced to four years’ jail this week for his role as a cash courier.
The AFP claimed the man, 26, was moving proceeds from crime around Perth and arrested him after monitoring his suspicious behaviour over several weeks.
The man was shadowed as he visited parks, bushland areas and secluded car parks late at night for short periods.
When police executed a search warrant at his Alexander Heights home in December 2022, they found a total of $3,650,330 cash in his bedroom, divided between a locked suitcase, locked tool bags and a cupboard drawer.
The bundled cash was in heat-sealed wrapping and police found similar empty wrapping and plastic gloves in his rubbish bin.
Police seized two mobile phones from the man, one of them encrypted, but he refused to provide officers with the passcodes.
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The man was unemployed but recent bank records showed multiple transactions to and from his account in amounts ranging from $250 to about $2,500.
The man was charged and pleaded guilty on 28 July last year to dealing with money worth $1 million or more being reckless to the fact it is the proceeds of crime, and failing to enable police to access his phones.
AFP Detective Acting Inspector Heath Cockram said seizing money suspected to be linked to illegal activity was a priority for the AFP, to prevent criminals from profiting at the expense of the community or funding other criminal enterprises.
“Anyone working for criminal syndicates plays an important role in helping them to cause harm,” Detective Cockram said.
“The AFP, with state and Commonwealth law enforcement partners, is working hard to make Australia a hostile environment for serious organised crime and bring to justice anyone involved in these illegal activities.”
The four-year custodial sentence, handed down in Perth District Court on Tuesday, included three years and six months for the proceeds of crime offence and six months for failing to unlock his phones.
The judge ordered the terms to be served cumulatively and set a two-year non-parole period.
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