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The glamour model ex-wife of former top boxer Joe Calzaghe has been spared jail time despite taking suitcases filled with £2.8million of cash out of the UK.
Jo-Emma Larvin, who was going out with the Welsh boxer for six years, was found guilty of removing criminal property from the UK by transporting money obtained by drugs to Dubai in 2020.
Alongside friend Amy Harrison, eight suitcases were used to get the cash out of the country.
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Her partner Jonathan Johnson, 55, travelled with her in September 2020 as they carried £2.8m using ordinary holiday items to disguise the cash stashed in eight suitcases.
Larvin denied any wrongdoing and claimed she believed she was flying out millions of pounds for the UAE Embassy.
The model said when she and her partner took the job it was the “worst decision” of their lives.
Larvin and Johnson, both of Ripon, North Yorks, along with Harrison, of Worcester Park, Surrey, and Beatrice Auty, 26, of Fulham, were unanimously convicted of removing criminal property from the UK by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court in April.
Larvin was sentenced to two years jail, suspended for two years while Johnson received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.
Harrison was also sentenced to two years jail, suspended for two years.
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NCA investigators found couriers carried £104m out of the country on 83 Emirates flights from London Heathrow to Dubai.
Recruitment conulstant Tara Hanlon, 32, described as a Kim Kardashian lookalike, was locked up for nearly three years in 2022 for money laundering offences.
But Auty was jailed for three and a half years because she had a more serious role stashing the money into suitcases and accompanying couriers to Heathrow.
Larvin, Johnson, Harrison and Ilyas, were also sentenced to carry out a significant number of hours of unpaid work and will all be electronically monitored curfew for the next six months.
Judge Sarah Paneth said: “What you did was critical to the scheme.
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“What you all did was not merely act as couriers, you were not just facilitating the cleaning of this dirty money, you were key to bleaching it.
“Once you reached Dubai and performed your role in clearing it through Customs, it was instantly gleaming white.”
Money laundering expert and technical adviser from HM Treasury, Lesley Hayton said coffee and air freshener had been secreted in the suitcases to put sniffer dogs off the scent of cash.
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She said anything over £13,000 has to be declared on arrival in the Dubai.
Ms Hayton said: “There is a belief that when moving large sums of cash, there is a belief that coffee will put a sniffer dog away from finding the cash.
“I believe they were travelling with Emirates Airlines, business class has the luxury of a later check in, so that makes the chances of getting caught that much smaller than if you were waiting in an airports for two to three hours.”
- money
- Drugs
- Dubai
- Prison News
- Courts
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