Man jailed for four and a half years for £12m dirty money operation

A Renfrewshire man who had a vital role in a £12m dirty money operation has been jailed for four and a half years.

Ronald Russell was snared after a Turkish lorry driver was stopped for a random search at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk on March 30 2023.

A total of almost £230,000 was discovered stuffed inside a mattress within the cab of the vehicle.

Russell's palm print was later found on a £20 note among the cash haul.

The 47 year-old was also linked to a piece of a paper with handwritten notes also in the HGV.

It eventually led to a raid at Russell's home in Linwood, Renfrewshire by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency.

He was found effectively trying to flush incriminating evidence down the toilet.

Russell today/yesterday returned to the High Court in Glasgow having admitted to a charge of being involved in serious organised crime.

Lady Hood cut the jail-term from six years and nine months due to the guilty plea.

The judge told Russell: "You were made redundant and struggled to find employment.

"When it was suggested that, for personal profit, you should record the movement of money, you agreed despite stating (In a pre-sentencing report) that it was obvious it was not legal.

"You said, very frankly, that you did not really care.

"It seems your account of the offending was, at times, evasive and contradictory.

"You did, in hindsight, express some remorse."

A hearing was earlier how the lorry driver had been halted by UK Border Force officials.

The swoop at Russell's home occurred almost a year later on March 20 2024.

He had asked who was at his door and when told it was police, he raced back upstairs.

Russell's partner eventually let the officers in.

Prosecutor Lindsey Dalziel told the court: "Russell was found in the main bathroom kneeling by the toilet with his arm inside the bowl.

"He was trying to dispose of pieces of paper from an A4 notepad at his side.

"A total of 26 pieces of damaged paper in the form of ledger notes were retrieved from the U-bend."

The notes were dried off and seized along with the pad.

Miss Daziel: "The papers documented the movement of large-scale cash covering the period March 20 2023 and March 19 2024."

She added the handwriting was the same as on the notes found in the Turkish trucker's lorry.

The ledger papers discovered in Russell's home had columns marked "in", "out" and "totals".

There was also reference to payments being made to "Shug" - an alias for Russell.

Miss Dalziel said the total money marked as moving "in" was £11,890,649.

The "out" column was £11,186,649.

Miss Dalziel: "Russell accepts that he was including a 'wage' of £42,210 paid to himself under the name 'Shug' between March 2023 and March 2024.

"This was in various instalments, which averaged around £4,000."

The notes revealed handovers of cash ranged between £100,000 and £465,000.

Other items were found at Russell's property including more than £50,000 and mobile phones.

Photos on one of the devices appeared to show £164,000 and then £196,000 tied up and packaged in his bedroom.

There was a further image of a cash counting machine next to a large amount of banknotes.

Describing text message, the advocate depute told the hearing: "There were frequent exchanges showing that Russell was counting money and querying discrepancies."

It is not known if the cash mentioned is linked to any other "commodity" such as drugs.

Sentencing, Lady Hood further stated to Russell: "You handled a vast amount of cash over a sustained period.

"You did so for substantial personal gain and gave no thought to the impact on others in doing so."

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