Man employed Doncaster 'courier' for 'rendezvous' to pick up nearly £100k
A man who employed a "courier" to drive across the country for a "rendezvous" where she was instructed to pick up almost £100,000 has been jailed.
Martin Massey, 48, recruited courier and former carer Chloe Jennet, 34, to take £99,830 to Hampshire during a meeting in March 2020. Sheffield Crown Court heard on Tuesday Jennet, of The Avenue, Bentley, Doncaster, was also ordered to download encrypted app Telegram - but did not delete any messages on it.
As she jailed Massey for 32 months, Her Honour Judge Rhys said Jennet was "observed by police carrying out observations of another man."
She said: "You had arranged to meet him at a car park in Hampshire, following which you drove off. You were stopped and asked if you were carrying anything and you said you had a bag of cash. Phones records show conversations between you and Mr Massey and showed he had contacted you the day before asking you to do a drop and pick up."
The court heard Jennet had used her own car and phone to carry out the crime of entering into or being concerned in money laundering, which both her and Massey were convicted of following a trial earlier this year. The judge said messages between her and Massey were also discovered, including a conversation about her "not having tokens to exchange."
Judge Rhys said: "During the course of the day, Martin Massey you told her to download the app, Telegram and told her to start the self-destruct timer. Messages went missing from your phone when it was seized but was on her phone. She had not deleted the messages.
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"During the course of the trial you, Martin Massey, said the arrangement for collection of the money had been made by you and she had been employed by you to collect the money."
Prosecutor Philip Standfast described the meet-up as a "rendezvous."
Mitigating for Jennet, Paul Lazarus, told the court that the mother-of-two had played the "lesser role" between the pair, and described her as "not really a sophisticated offender at all."
He added: "I do really open with the submission that she was the courier...There is no evidence she would have been aware of any wider criminality or that the money was criminal property. She has made a massive mistake, a massive misstep."
For Massey, of Hatherley Lodge, Newark, Daniel Evan Duncan Murray, said his use of the Telegram app was to a "limited extent." He said the father-of-four's operation was "planned, we submit, in the barest terms." He said: "He had no previous convictions at the time, and certainly has no relevant...
"He has an 89-year-old mother with dementia who lives in a care home and he visits her regularly. His father died when he was 10 and that had a devastating effect on him."
Massey was jailed for 32 months. Jennet was handed a sentence of 10 months suspended for 12 months, during which she will have to undertake requirements including 200 hours of unpaid work.