By Gangsters Inc. Editors

A prolific English money launderer has lost gold and art worth millions after a court judged Monday they were the proceeds of crime. 69-year-old Lenn Mayhew-Lewis was caught red-handed by British police with eight kilos of gold bars and shavings when he was arrested in 2019. Mayhew-Lewis’ clientele included drug traffickers.

The officers found the precious metal – now worth more than £400,000 – stowed in a compartment of his Bentley. A subsequent investigation identified that Mayhew-Lewis had also purchased a painting by artist Frank Auerbach. It’s believed the painting was subsequently used by another individual as collateral to secure a £5 million loan from a British auction house.

The painting, “Albert Street, 2009”, was purchased in 2017 for £1.6 million , but Auerbach’s works can fetch as much as £5.5m.

Mayhew-Lewis, who was last year convicted of money laundering, is now a fugitive, wanted by British authorities, after he fled ahead of his sentencing. He was sentenced in his absence to 5 years in prison.

Getting the gold

In his absence, authorities worked hard to strip him of his ill-gotten assets.

Officers from the National Crime Agency’s International Corruption Unit applied for the forfeiture of the gold and Auerbach landscape under the Listed Assets provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 – legislation which enables law enforcement to recover property such as precious metals and artwork believed to be derived from or intended for use in crime.

The forfeiture was subsequently granted at a hearing on Monday, April 29.

The items will now be sold and the proceeds returned to the public purse. Up to half the money from the sales will go directly into fighting more organized crime, under the Home Office’s Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme.

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