Kathryn Westmore

Kathryn Westmore, who leads the financial crime policy programme at the Royal United Services Institute, said the changes could “misrepresent what the purpose of anti-money laundering regulations are, and ignore the fact that there are already regulations in place that should prevent charities and universities from accepting dodgy money”. She added: “If those aren’t enforced, that’s a different problem but not one that’s solved by overlaying another set of requirements, most of which aren’t relevant.”

Short of sitting outside the shops and matching footfall with what they claim to have as revenue, it’s hard for the authorities to identify [criminal enterprises], and it’s relatively easy for a business to claim they’re legitimate – they just knock up some invoices and ledgers...Another way these stores are used is by being refitted frequently. They operate for a few months, close down, have a complete refurbishment and open again – that’s the way crime proceeds can be laundered, through inflated costs. You have a builder who is part of the [criminal] network."

The limited number of prosecutions in the UK have been of networks moving tens of millions of pounds and individual money mules depositing six-figure sums. However, it is likely that the true scale of Chinese money laundering is much greater than this and is continuing to grow. Based on my research, it is likely that these groups are laundering, at the very least, hundreds of millions of pounds related to organised crime activity in the UK.”