Thursday 17 September 2009

Fashion Wannabe's Crooked Cash Cover-Up



A drug-money launderer, who fabricated a career in the fashion industry to cover her life of crime, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after police found heroin-tainted cash stuffed inside a safe during a raid on her house.

Lisa Raitt, 42, of Windmill Road, Slough, was also ordered to forfeit £259,000 after a Kingston Crown Court jury convicted her off possessing criminal property and five counts of fraud.

Central Task Force detectives armed with a search warrant swooped on Raitt’s home on February 6, last year, seizing £16,500, which the defendant claimed was an inheritance.

Police also discovered she made a fraudulent £12,000 housing and council benefit claim as well as bogus mortgage applications, telling lenders she was earning a legitimate living in the fashion industry.

Examination of her bank accounts and other evidence revealed Raitt (pictured above) was laundering tens of thousands of pounds in crime proceeds.

Investigating officer DC Barry Byron said: "This conviction is another example of how the Central Task Force exploits every opportunity to dismantle the networks against which we are tasked and target the individuals involved in this area of criminality.

“It also shows our commitment to work with other agencies to ensure that any public funds which have been unlawfully obtained can be recovered."

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