Women from Leeds and Pudsey helped smuggle millions of pounds on first-class flights to Dubai

Nicola Esson and Stacey Borg are two of eight defendants facing jail sentences for smuggling trip they made to the United Arab Emirates. Being paid £3,000 for each trip, they were bought first-class tickets to qualify for extra-luggage allowance and stuffed bundles of cash into their cases. Taking up to £500,000 at a time, the bundles were sprayed with coffee to avoid alerting detection dogs.

Stacey Borg, 41, of Carr Road, Calverley, was arrested in May 2021, along with Nicola Esson, 56, of Stanks Close, Leeds. Both were charged with removal of property from England and Wales, namely cash, which, they knew or suspected, constituted or represented others benefit from criminal conduct.

They were due to be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday, but the case has been adjourned, with Esson to be sentenced on July 12, while a date is yet to be set for Borg.

Others due to be sentenced include Jo Emma Larvin and Jonathan Johnson, both of Ripon, Amy Liane Harrison of Worcester Park, Surrey, Muhammad Ilyas of Slough, Megan Reeves of Doncaster and Beatrice Auty of south-west London.

They were part of a network that collected cash from criminal groups around the UK, which was believed to be the profits of drug dealing. They took it to counting houses, usually rented apartments in central London.

The money was then vacuum packed and separated into suitcases which would typically each contain around £500,000, weighing around 40 kilos. They were sprayed with coffee or air fresheners in an effort to prevent them being found by Border Force detection dogs.

Two other couriers have previously been sentenced, including 32-year-old Tara Hanlon from Leeds, and 39-year-old Czech national Zdenek Kamaryt.

Hanlon was given a 34-month jail sentence in July of 2021 for her part. She had successfully smuggled more than £3.5 million of ill-gotten gains out of the country during previous trips. Before boarding her final flight to Dubai, she was stopped at Heathrow, searched and found to have £2 million stuffed in five suitcases that she had checked in.