Legal Experts Call On Businesses To Review Systems Following PM’s Comments

Businesses operating in the property sector must not ignore the significant reputational damage they could suffer by failing to ensure their financial crime compliance systems are robust, according to specialist lawyers at Irwin Mitchell, reacting to the Prime Minister’s vow this week to stop UK homes from being bought with ‘dirty money’.

Speaking in Singapore, David Cameron has announced plans to increase efforts to tackle corruption and raised specific concerns regarding the purchase of UK homes with “plundered or laundered cash”.

He added that recent trends pointed to properties in London being purchased by non-trading shell companies by people from overseas for the purpose of money laundering.

The issue was recently highlighted by the National Crime Agency, which warned that such problems were having an impact on house prices in the capital and the UK, as well as a Channel 4 documentary.

Reacting to Mr Cameron’s comments, specialist regulatory lawyers at Irwin Mitchell have said it is vital that property businesses react swiftly to these concerns and ensure that they have systems in place to counter such activity.