‘Crime pays': Criminals driving Lamborghinis abroad to sell thanks to legal loophole

Telegraph

25-04-2025

Lamborghinis and other luxury cars bought with the proceeds of crime are being driven abroad to be sold off, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned ministers.
The agency said a gap in the law means police officers cannot intervene to seize the vehicles unless there is direct evidence to link them to a crime.
It said the loophole means criminals are being left free to launder their illicit gains by selling the cars and using the cash receipts to either fund further crime or their lifestyles.
The NCA has asked the Government to legislate to add cars to the group of 'listed assets' – which already include items such as fine art and jewellery – that can be seized by officers on suspicion that they have been bought with unlawful funds.
Expensive cars such as Lamborghinis have been a traditional asset used by criminals to launder their profits. One, with the numberplates 'crime pays', was among £6 million of assets seized from county lines dealers who flooded the UK with cocaine.
Three members of the gang, Leon Ley, 34, Dale Martin, 28, and Daniel Harris, 40, saw assets also including a Range Rover, luxury caravans and cash confiscated after they were caught trafficking 50kg of drugs from London and Essex to Wales.
The proposed law change would give officers the power to detain the cars before they leave the country and to later pursue forfeiture proceedings at court to take ownership of them.
To avoid this, the owner would have to convince a judge that the car being targeted by the NCA had been bought with legally earned money and counter the agency's case that it had instead been acquired as a way of laundering the proceeds of crime.
The NCA's push for a legal change followed a succession of cases in which officers have had to watch high value vehicles being driven abroad despite concerns about the criminal background of their owners.
In one example, in August last year a Lamborghini with a declared value of £130,000 was spotted leaving the country to be delivered to the EU by two people with extensive criminal records for serious offending.
It was supposedly being driven abroad for 'diagnostic engine work' on behalf of the absent owner. But there was no evidence of bookings for accommodation, garage or return travel, and officers believed the true reason was to launder criminal proceeds by selling the vehicle.
In another case, in June last year, a Lamborghini with a trade value of £182,000, which was driven by the target of a law enforcement investigation, was transported out of the UK via Dover on a trailer. It has not returned.
Officers were unable to act because there was no direct evidence of criminality and no border offence was committed. That meant the vehicles could not be seized to stop them from leaving the UK.
A source said similar cases involving high end vehicles being taken out of the UK in suspicious circumstances were 'regularly' seen by other agencies including Border Force, HMRC, Immigration Enforcement and Home Office Intelligence.
By adding cars to the 'listed assets' in the Criminal Finances Act of 2017, they could be seized. Items already included on this list also include precious metals, precious stones and watches.
The latest Home Office asset recovery bulletin, published in September last year, showed there was a total of 163 'listed asset seizures' with a value of £7 million in the financial year to the end of last March – the highest annual total since the seizure power was introduced.
Among those who have laundered criminal assets into cars is Alexander Surin, a fugitive crime lord from London who was dubbed 'Don Car-leone' because he owned so many expensive cars.
Surin was forced to hand over four – three Ferraris and a Rolls-Royce – as well as the profits from the sale of a Bugatti Veyron after admitting in High Court litigation brought by the NCA that they were bought with the proceeds of crime.