A man has been jailed after admitting concealing more than £170,000 in cash in a car. Bledi Almadhi, 40, of Wolverhampton Street, Walsall, was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Thursday (8 December) to 18 months behind bars after pleading guilty to concealing/disguising/converting/transferring/removing criminal property at an earlier hearing. Almadhi has also been ordered to pay a discharge of £149. The court heard how officers stopped a black BMW 7 Series car on 27 January 2021 at junction 12 of the M6. Officers discovered a large green carrier bag in the boot of the car, containing more than £160,000 in cash, in brown packages. The cash, along with mobile phones and a bank card were seized by officers. Officers discovered the car had also been used between September 2020 and January 2021 in transferring criminal cash. DC Richard Farmer, of the Fraud Finance & Cyber Invest team at Staffordshire Police, said: “We are committed to protecting our county from the threat of economic crime. We will use all necessary tactics to target organised crime and those participating in corruption, fraud and money laundering. “What might seem like an easy way to make some extra cash could end with a criminal record and a prison sentence.”
