The charges covered NatWest’s failure to properly monitor the activity of a commercial customer, Fowler Oldfield, a jewellery business which traded gold, based in Bradford, between 8 November 2012 and 23 June 2016. The business claimed annual turnover of £15m when it opened their account but was soon depositing millions of pounds in cash through NatWest branches around England. 

Mrs Justice Cockerill, the sentencing judge at Southwark Crown Court, said 'it must be borne in mind that although in no way complicit in the money laundering which took place, the Bank [NatWest] was functionally vital. Without the Bank – and without the Bank’s failures - the money could not be effectively laundered'.

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