Anti-money laundering protection

The Government requires all solicitors to guard against possible money laundering (the process by which the proceeds of crime become 'clean'). The key changes that have been imposed on us are as follows:

Proof of identity
We are required to obtain evidence of both your identity and your home address before we can do work for you or accept money on your behalf, other than in very limited circumstances. You will need to bring into the office one original document proving your name and one proving your address, so that we can take copies.

Appropriate proof of identity documents include a current, signed passport, or a full UK/EU Driving Licence (not an old style provisional licence), or a Benefit Book or original notification letter from the Benefits Agency confirming your right to benefits.

Appropriate proof of address documents include your current UK driving licence (if not used for proof of name purposes), a recent utility bill (but not mobile phone bills), a current local authority tax bill or a bank, building society or credit union statement or passbook showing your current address.

If you are not coming to see us at the beginning of your case, you can post us copies of documents You should not post original documents. The copies need to have been checked by an official person (a UK lawyer, banker, financial advisor, accountant, teacher, doctor, minister of religion or post master/sub-post master or your employer). After checking the copy against the original document, they must write on the copies 'originals seen'. Ideally, they should also stamp the documents with their business stamp. They will also need to write their name, address and telephone number on the copy documents so that we can confirm the details of their checking with them.

Extra proof of identity requirements for businesses
Unincorporated businesses or partnerships
We will need identity and address evidence for the individual partners or owners of the business, unless we already have this as a result of any personal instructions that you may have given us. We need two documents confirming the business trading address and we also need to see the mandate of the business or partnership authorising us to act for it.

Private Limited Companies
As well as identity and address evidence for the main directors (unless we already have this following private instructions from you) we also need all of the following; a copy of the certificate of incorporation/certificate of trade or the equivalent, evidence of the company's registered address and a list of shareholders and directors.

Payment of our bills
We are no longer able to accept cash from you, except in very limited circumstances. If this is likely to cause you any problems, please let us know as soon as possible. To assist you, we do accept payment by some debit cards, as well as most major credit cards.

Source of payment
We may need to know early on which bank or other financial institution the funds you use to pay our fees will be coming from. We may have to ask you questions about how you acquired the funds in the first place. We appreciate that some personal questions can seem intrusive but we are under an obligation to obtain this information from you.

Suspicions of crime
If, during the course of certain transactions, we become suspicious or aware that money with which you are involved comes from the proceeds of any crime (for example, from robbery, benefit fraud or tax evasion), we may be under a duty to make a report to the police authorities without letting you know.

This obligation extends to any suspicion we have that anyone connected with your case is involved with any criminal activity – however minor – we are under a duty to tell the police without telling you.

If you have any questions about these procedures, please contact your usual Wards’ contact or email georgina.peacock@wards.uk.com