A former taxi driver from High Wycombe has been spared jail after being caught handing over a carrier bag containing £65k, which was suspected of being connected to money laundering.

Adnan Mahmood, 34, had fallen on hard times after he lost his job following a conviction for battery.

After Covid hit, he was offered £200 to transfer the bag at a car park in Wiltshire. 

But he was stung by the NCA [the National Crime Agency], who were monitoring suspected organised crime and arrested the ex-cabbie in a car park in Ogbourne St George.

A judge at Reading Crown Court on Friday, April 26 said Mahmood had not been fully aware of the extent of the criminality in which he had gotten involved.

The court heard Mahmoud had arrived at the village, near Marlborough, on February 24, 2020, and was observed handing a white ASDA bag to another man.

Officers swooped in to arrest both men and recovered £64,950 in cash, prosecutors said.

Mahmoud also had an encrypted smartphone, the court heard.

Police searched Mahmood’s house and found £6,665, which was now the subject of forfeiture proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the court heard.

The court heard Mahmood, of Whitelands Road, High Wycombe, had one previous conviction for battery in 2016, after which he had lost his job as a taxi driver.

A lawyer representing Mahmood said his work doing odd jobs dried up during lockdown and he ‘was likely to succumb’ to the offer of £200, which is what he was to be paid for handing over the money, the court heard.

In November 2022, Mahmood admitted entering an arrangement which he knew or suspected facilitated the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by or on behalf of another person.

Judge Mathew Turner, sentencing Mahmood, said: “You were quite clearly acting under direction for a limited function in this case.

“You did so, on your own admission, for personal gain. Some £200. 

“I do accept you had a limited awareness or understanding of the extent of the criminal activity underlying this.

“This offence dates back to February 2020.

“You are now being sentenced over four years since.

“You have committed no further offences since.”

The judge sentenced Mahmood to a 12-month community order with a requirement to complete 200 hours of unpaid work.

Commenting on what the money was for, Judge Turner said: “We do not know what it related to.

“While we may guess at it being from drug dealing or whatever it might be, we don’t know.”