A Calverley woman is among a group waiting to be sentenced after admitting smuggling money from the UK to Dubai.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) dismantled a network of criminal cash couriers that laundered more than £100m by smuggling it out of the UK to the UAE city.

Eleven of the couriers have now been convicted following yesterday’s guilty verdicts returned in the trial of Beatrice Auty, 26, of London; Jonathan Johnson, 55, and Jo Emma Larvin, 44, of Ripon, and Amy Harrison, 27, of Surrey, at Isleworth Crown Court.

Their network smuggled more than £104 million from the UK to Dubai during 83 separate trips between November 2019 and October 2020, overseen by ringleader Abdullah Alfalsi, 47, who was jailed for more than nine years in July last year.

Stacey Borg, 41, of Carr Road, Calverley, Pudsey, was arrested in May 2021, along with Nicola Esson, 56, of Stanks Close, Leeds.

Esson travelled from Heathrow to Dubai on three occasions in August and September 2020, checking in 19 suitcases with a combined weight of almost half a tonne.

Borg made three trips to Dubai during the same period, on one occasion travelling with Esson.

She declared £1.8 million in cash to Dubai customs in September 2020 and £2.5 million the following month.

Both were charged with removal of property from England and Wales, namely cash, which, they knew or suspected, constituted or represented others benefit from criminal conduct.

Five other couriers, including Esson and Borg, pleaded guilty at previous hearings and will be sentenced at a later date, along with those convicted yesterday.

Esson pleaded guilty on May 18, of last year, and Borg pleaded guilty on October 28, 2022.

A number of British couriers are under investigation in the UAE and cannot leave until inquiries have been completed by UAE law enforcement.

Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said: “The laundering of such vast quantities of cash around the globe enables organised criminals and corrupt elites to clean or hide their ill-gotten gains.

“Cash smugglers typically work on behalf of International Controller Networks, who move the finances of the international drug trade, people traffickers, fraudsters and other criminal groups, making the source of the money difficult to trace.

“The criminality this enables costs the UK billions every year causes misery and ruins lives across the world.

“This case demonstrates the continued commitment by the NCA to crackdown on money laundering and close the vulnerabilities being exploited.”