Criminals are targeting property in university towns across the UK to launder dirty money, an industry expert has warned.
The government’s efforts to crack down on illicit funds through the UK’s £7tn-worth of housing stock are “woefully underfunded” and present an open door for money launderers, says Mark Hayward, chief executive of NAEA Propertymark, the professional body for estate agents.
The rebuke of financial crime controls comes as the government seeks to show that it is cracking down on dodgy money flowing into the UK economy in the wake of the Salisbury chemical attack thought to be by Russia.
