Money launderers sentenced to prison

Saturday 27 May 2017

Two men caught trying to smuggle money out of the Island which it's believed they made through drugs deals have been sent to prison by the Royal Court.

Robert Thomas Dixey (14/12/1981), from Fulham, and Steven James Pereira (06/11/1984), from Jersey, were given 18 months and 21 months respectively.

The two men were seen exchanging a paper bag on 5 March 2016 by Customs officers who were surveilling Pereira, as he was suspected of being an associate of David Whelan who was sentenced to prison with two other men for drugs offences earlier this year.

Following the exchange, Dixey was stopped by officers as he was about to board the ferry to Portsmouth. He told officers he was in Jersey to view properties for sale and that he had nothing to declare apart from £3,000 in cash which was his spending money.

Officers then found £36,410 separated in numerous bundles of cash in the car but Dixey explained he had won it in a bookies. He later stated that a friend had asked him to come to Jersey and collect the money for another friend, but he refused to name either. He added that he had been told to collect £20,000 from a third party in Jersey but having found the total amount to be £36,000 upon counting, he had became suspicious as to where it came from.

As the investigation into Whelan and his associates was still ongoing, officers let Dixey go back to the UK. He was eventually arrested on 13 February this year after he returned voluntarily from the UK. Pereira was arrested two weeks later.

Leading the Prosecution, Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit told the Court that whoever acts as a money courier "...provides assistance, support and encouragement to criminal activities" and "...both defendants contributed to the arrangement of moving money to the UK, a critical part of the criminal offence."

He described the operation as "...not particularly sophisticated" and accepted that the two men did not know each other before the exchange of money. He recommended two years in prison for both men stating that "there wouldn't be drug traffickers without money launderers" and that as such the Court should give an element of deterrence to whoever might consider the same activity.

Pereira's advocate, Pierre Landick, highlighted the fact that there had been a significant delay since the initial arrest and that this had affected his client. He stated that Pereira's involvement was short and that he didn't know Dixey, how much money was in the bag or where the money came from, although he suspected it was the proceeds of crime. He said that Pereira had been asked by a friend to give the money to a third party and that he was just doing a friend a favour. 

He asked for the court to give credit to Pereira as he has been in a long standing relationship with his partner, whom he was due to marry a week after his arrest and with whom he shares two children.

Dixey chose to speak for himself and apologised to the Court for being nervous as he had "never been in a situation like this." He said he couldn't borrow any more money to pay for a lawyer, adding that he didn't want to ask for legal aid as he felt it wasn't right for Jersey taxpayers to be paying for it when he had committed the crime (legal firms actually pay for legal aid - editor's note) He described his involvement as a "fateful, terrible error" and "out of character", adding "I am not intending to be in trouble ever again."

Dixey explained that he is the sole carer for his 64-year-old mother who suffers from depression and arthritis, and that he recently began a career in the movie industry, which would be over if he was sentenced to prison. He said: "I know that, if the Court sees exceptional circumstances, they can look through custodial sentences. I know I deserve to be punished but I feel I have exceptional circumstances in regards to my mother, who is alone without me. I did not think this through, it was stupid of me. It haunts me every day."

Handing down the sentence, Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, who was sitting with two jurats, said that "dealing in drugs cannot thrive" adding that money launderers are "...a central part of the web and that sentences must reflect the seriousness of their conduct." He added that while both defendants had much mitigation, Dixey's was greater as he had no previous conviction, compared to Pereira who had three for six offences including drug possession and trafficking. 

Dixey was therefore handed a 18-month sentence while Pereira received 21 months.