£100,000 confiscated from Chinese student 'acting as cash-mule'

A CHINESE student suspected of being a cash mule has had more than £100,000 confiscated from her after she was stopped with the money at a Scottish airport.

Weimei Zhong, 22, a student at Heriot-Watt university in Edinburgh, was found with "very large sums" of euros and US dollars, including 500 euro notes, which are known to be used by so-called "cash-mules" when she was stopped by UK Border Agency (UKBA) officials at Edinburgh Airport in April.

The student, who was travelling back from China, was unable to offer a "reasonable" explanation of where the cash had come from or where it was going, the UKBA said.

In total, 104,855 worth of euros and 3,413 of dollars were confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

However, she was not arrested in connection with or convicted of an offence, the UKBA said.

Under the act, authorities can seize money from individuals without a criminal conviction.

Malcolm Bragg, assistant director of UKBA, said: "The forfeiture of these very large sums of money demonstrates the determination of UK Border Agency officers to detect cash couriers entering the United Kingdom.

"Other individuals attempting to bring substantial sums of cash into the country, without making the required declarations and seeking the appropriate authority, will be dealt with similarly."

Ruaraidh Macniven from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: "The Civil Recovery Unit, working in conjunction with its various law enforcement partners, is resolved to use the civil provisions in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in order to disrupt criminal activity in Scotland at all levels."

Students such as Ms Zhong are said to be prime targets for the criminal outfits behind similar money laundering schemes, and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) has run awareness campaigns on university and college campuses warning young people not to get involved.

Adverts on recruitment websites and in the media, as well as e-mails, are used to recruit the students into either transporting or hiding illegal cash in their accounts.

In addition to acting as physical "cash mules", students are also enlisted to receive funds into their bank accounts, which are then withdrawn and sent to a third party, effectively "laundering" them.

In return, the criminals offer students - many of whom are struggling to make ends meet - a cash payment. In most cases, the individuals are approached personally by the criminals and asked to get involved.

The SCDEA's Scottish Money Laundering Unit (SMLU) is dedicated to investigating money laundering and actively targeting the assets of criminals and criminal organisations operating in Scotland.

Dr Niall Hamilton-Smith, expert in organised crime at Stirling University, said: "It's a very significant amount of money to be physically carrying."Within Scotland, cash-mule scams commonly involve enlisting students to use their bank accounts to help launder the proceeds of crime.

"They play on a person's naivety but also a little bit on their greed or financial desperation. You may have an inkling that something's not right, but hope to profit from it anyway. If something then goes wrong, you're much less likely to come forward and report it to the authorities.

"However, you can't discount the possibility, particularly where foreign students are involved, that people may also be acting under some sort of duress."