Haulage Firm Boss and Drivers Jailed Over £30m Money Laundering Scam
Six crooks linked to a road haulage firm have been slammed with hefty jail terms after masterminding a massive money laundering racket worth over £30 million. The biggest fish, Marcus Justin Hughes, ran Genesis 2014 (Ltd) UK and copped a 14-year stretch at Stoke Crown Court for conspiracy to launder cash. His transport planner, Leon Woolley, landed five and a half years for the same crime.
Drivers Dragged Down in Cash Courier Sting
Two drivers, Nicholas Fern and Damion Morgan, were nailed and sentenced to five and a half years each after being caught ferrying bundles of dodgy notes. They were part of a scheme moving vast sums of untraceable cash around the UK — many millions of pounds slicked through Genesis vans.
Encrypted Phones and Dubai Links Exposed
The crooks used encrypted Encrochat phones to stay under the radar. Hughes regularly messaged Craig Johnson — a convicted fraudster hiding out in Dubai — coordinating huge cash collections in multiple UK spots. The plan was to haul the loot to London, then make it look legit.
The French authorities cracked the Encrochat network and tipped off UK police. In March 2021, Fern and Morgan were stopped separately while hauling around £700,000 in cash. Hughes was arrested that day too, with £60,000 found at his home. Phone records exposed the sprawling, years-long money laundering hustle, moving between £30 million and £45 million in criminal cash.
Criminal Record and Licence Ban Didn’t Stop Hughes
Notorious for previous drug trafficking and VAT fraud convictions, Hughes had no business running any haulage company. His operator’s licence had been suspended for five years back in 2018 — yet he still operated Genesis as the money laundering hub.
Woolley, Liam Bailey, and Simon Davies, business associates of Hughes, also took part in steering the dirty cash around. Prosecutor Jonathan Kelleher said the group was a vital cog in the criminal machine, using sophisticated tech and global networks to funnel dirty money.
Detective Inspector Jonathan Jones from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit added: “These men were part of a nationally significant organised crime group, offering professional money laundering services across the country and beyond. Their convictions send a clear message: money laundering is a vile crime linked to the worst offenders.”
The CPS Proceeds of Crime Division now aims to strip these crooks of their criminal profits, hitting them where it hurts most — their cash.
