Your correspondent C Langdon (see [2004] Gazette, 2 December, 17) threatens seriously to misdirect himself and others when writing that he is obliged by the Money Laundering Regulations 2003 to report a teenager who tells him that he has stolen £5.


Any citizen is obliged to report a suspicion of money laundering by others when, and only when, the suspicion is based on information that came to him in the course of an activity in the regulated sector. A solicitor in general practice may expect to move into and out of the regulated sector numerous times in the course of a day's work. He will be within the regulated sector, for example, when acting for a client in a financial or real property transaction but not, for example, when advising a client detained at a police station, writing a will or engaging in litigation. In addition, any citizen is obliged to seek consent (and hence report) if he is himself proposing to engage in a prohibited act.


Unless the teenager is seeking to use the stolen £5 as deposit on a house purchase, or seeking tax or investment advice, or asking the solicitor (or social worker) to hold the stolen £5 for safe keeping, it seems that neither the solicitor nor the social worker is under an obligation to report the matter to the authorities.



David Winch, MLRO Support, Leamington Spa