Wife locked up for use of stolen cash
THE wife of a man cleared of intentionally knocking down a Birmingham detective has been jailed for six months for laundering the money from her husband’s fraud.
Jolanta Matanowska’s husband, Rashpal Singh, was convicted in 2005 for stealing more than £1 million from major high street banks in a sophisticated scam.
Despite a confiscation order, the money was never recovered.
And Singh served an additional three years in prison for failure to repay the cash.
Meanwhile, a police investigation into Matanowska uncovered she was in possession of two houses costing nearly £500,000.
And the court decided these were funded from her husband’s stolen bank money.
The 33-year-old woman, originally from Poland but now living in London, was given two concurrent six month sentences at Stafford Crown Court on Monday.
Det Insp Andy Bannister, from the Economic Crime Team, said: “This was a complex case where both Matanowska and her husband used a significant number of aliases and false identities.
“The investigators specialise in detecting these complex frauds and have been able to unravel the fraud.
“This result sends out a very clear message to criminals that trying to launder the proceeds of crime through family members and friends will expose them to the risk of arrest, conviction and time in prison.
“There is no escape from confiscation orders. Those required to pay will face extra time in prison if they don’t, and will then still owe the money upon release.
“We follow up these unpaid orders to ensure that the offenders do not benefit.”
Earlier this year Singh was cleared of intentionally knocking down Det Con Cathy Corbett in an incident near Heathrow Airport in December 2006.
She and two colleagues were trying to arrest him after he absconded from jail where he was serving a six-and-a-half year jail sentence for a £500,000 fraud.
He was returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
