An air steward from Malaysia has been jailed a year by a London court for trying to smuggle £150,000 (RM807,300) in cash out of Heathrow Airport.

Malaysian jailed 12 months in London for money laundering
FMT Reporters
-November 24, 2018 3:54 PMMuhamad Aziz with some of the money found in his bag. (UK National Crime Agency pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: An air steward from Malaysia has been jailed a year by a London court for trying to smuggle £150,000 (RM807,300) in cash out of Heathrow Airport.

Muhamad Aziz, 37, from Selangor, pleaded guilty on Nov 22 to money laundering at the Isleworth Crown Court and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Muhamad, 37, was due to fly on a Malaysia Airlines flight from London to Kuala Lumpur when he was stopped, according to a report on the website of UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

It said security staff at Heathrow Terminal 4 called in Border Force officers after scanning Muhamad’s bags

The officers found £100,000 cash in a roller bag and another £50,000 in his black suit carrier.

The report did not say when this incident was uncovered. It also did not identify the airline he worked for, although it said he was about to board a Malaysia Airlines flight.

“Swabs taken from the cash tested positive for cocaine. Aziz was arrested for money laundering,” the NCA report added.

The NCA reported on its website that Muhamad had claimed he had brought the money in on a flight a day earlier and had intended to spend it on handbags and watches from the Harrods department store.

However, he said he hadn’t had a chance to go shopping because he was too tired, the report added.

“He refused to explain why he had two receipts from Primark (a fashion retailer) in his wallet dated that same day, as well as a customer registration card for a Malaysian money exchange bureau.”

Ian Truby, operations manager for the NCA at Heathrow, said the story Muhamad told them “was so far-fetched as to be almost laughable”.

“He was a cabin crew member for 15 years and would well have known the regulations about carrying cash into and out of the country.

“It seems that he decided to use that employment as a cover for his criminality.”

Truby said organised criminals relied on cash couriers to move their profits around, adding that the money would be forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The report noted that any cash forfeited is subsequently returned to the public purse