Haulage Firm Boss Jailed for £30 Million Money Laundering Plot
Six defendants, including a senior manager and two drivers, have been locked up for running a massive money laundering racket through a road haulage company. The operation moved over £30 million in illicit cash.
Boss of Genesis 2014 Faces Heavy Jail Sentence
Marcus Justin Hughes, the man behind Genesis 2014 (UK) Ltd, was handed 14 years at Stoke Crown Court for conspiring to launder huge sums of money. Leon Woolley, the company’s transport planner, got five and a half years for the same offence.
Drivers Nicholas Fern and Damion Morgan were also convicted for conspiracy to launder cash and received five and a half years each.
Encrypted Phones and Dubai Deals
Hughes used an encrypted phone network, Encrochat, to communicate with Craig Johnson, a known fraudster based in Dubai. Together, they organised regular cash pickups across the UK, transporting the money abroad to “clean” it.
The cash came in loads ranging from £30 million to £45 million — all believed to be criminal proceeds. French authorities cracked the Encrochat network and tipped off UK police.
Van Stops and Seizures Lead to Bust
On 26 March 2021, police stopped two Genesis vans carrying nearly £700,000 in cash. Hughes was arrested the same day, with £60,000 seized from his home. Phone data exposed the full scale of the operation and Hughes’s role.
Shocking revelations included that Hughes had a history of drug trafficking and VAT fraud, and was banned from running a haulage company since 2018 due to his suspended operator’s licence.
CPS and Police Crack Down on Organised Crime
“These men were part of a nationally significant Organised Crime Group providing professional money laundering services for criminals nationwide and beyond,” said Detective Inspector Jonathan Jones of the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit.
“Their convictions should deter others from money laundering, a crime as vile as the one that generates the dirty cash in the first place.”
The coordinated work of the Regional Organised Crime Unit, CPS Serious Economic Organised Crime, and international prosecutors smashed this criminal network. The CPS will now move to seize the defendants’ ill-gotten gains.
