A Gloucester firm is among hundreds of businesses fined a total of £3.2 million for breaching anti-money laundering rules.

The 240 businesses nationally were fined between July 1 and December 31 2022 by HMRC for breaching Money Laundering Regulations aimed at preventing criminals from exploiting illicit cash.

Certain types of business are required to register with HMRC, which is a supervisory body for Money Laundering Regulations.

Cotswold Accountancy Ltd in Gloucester was fined £4,500 for failing to apply for registration at the required time. It was one of 11 firms in the South West hit by a fine.

Xpress Money Services Ltd in London was fined £1.4 million for failing to carry out risk assessments, not having appropriate anti-money laundering controls and failing to conduct proper due diligence checks.

Nick Sharp, HMRC's deputy director of economic crime, fraud investigation service, said: "Money laundering is not a victimless crime. We are here to help businesses protect themselves from criminal attacks and will continue to tackle the minority of businesses which do not comply with the Money Laundering Regulations.

"Serious and organised crime costs the UK billions of pounds every year and our anti-money laundering supervision is a vital tool in combatting that."

Money service businesses provide vital services to the community, but can be exploited by criminals to launder the proceeds of crime, so must have a robust risk assessment and policies, controls and procedures to prevent this.

HMRC supervises tens of thousands of businesses across the UK under Money Laundering Regulations, and helps these firms protect themselves from criminals who seek to launder cash or finance terrorism.

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