Our money-laundering procedures
Government regulations mean we need you to prove who you are and where any funds you intend us to handle for you originate from, providing us with documentary evidence of both. This applies whether you are a new client or an existing (even long-standing) client if we have not taken instructions from you for some time and any previous identity information we hold for you has expired whether by effluxion of time or, perhaps, because you have moved since we last acted for you.
It is important we have your ID as soon as possible as we are not permitted to move or hold funds for you until we have complied with the Government's anti-money-laundering requirements.
Why?
The UK is a major international financial and legal centre, with an international reputation for honesty and integrity.
Unfortunately, that is why financial and professional businesses, like banks and solicitors’ firms, are attractive to money launderers – criminals who sometimes try to hide stolen money by turning it into legitimate income or capital investments.
The government has introduced measures:
- To make it more difficult for criminals to make and keep money from their crimes
- To confiscate the proceeds of crime
For this reason, there are compulsory checks which all solicitors have to make of their clients.
Being asked for identification does not mean you are under suspicion. The identification requirements apply to all clients when they are asking their solicitors to conduct certain types of cases.
How this affects you
This means you will have to show us, or somebody acting on our behalf, some personal documents, and allow us to scan / photocopy and retain those scans / photocopies.
Typical ID documents can include:
- Your current signed passport
- Your current photo-card driving licence
- Your Benefit book and
- A recent bank statement, gas, electricity, council tax or other household bill addressed to you at your normal residential address.
If you don’t have these documents, you will have to ask us to advise you on how best to prove who you are.
