Since 2017 HMRC have had a duty to publish lists of those not complying with AML regulations. In the quarter year to end of October 2018 five companies were fined, the largest was dished out to Countrywide Estate Agents with a £250k penalty for failing to maintain policies, controls and procedures, and for failures in conducting due diligence; verification and proper record keeping. The other four fines ranged from £68k to £500, for typically failure to carry out risk assessments and poor policies and procedures. Since then one has gone into administration. No pawnbrokers, or pawnbrokers undertaking MSB activity have been fined. The full list is at; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/businesses-not-complying-with-money-laundering-regulations-in-2018-to-2019/current-list-of-businesses-that-have-not-complied-with-the-2017-money-laundering-regulations
As a result of the above HMRC announced today that they hit the Estate Agent market with un-announced visits to 50 estate agents, action is being taken against all those who failed to comply and are considering fines and criminal proceedings.
In total and including bank fines HMRC say that over the past 3 years, it has carried out more than 5,000 interventions on supervised businesses, with 655 penalties worth £2.3 million issued in 2017 to 2018. In addition, HMRC recovered over £31 million under the proceeds of Proceeds of Crime Act.