A money launderer who drove a Bentley has been imprisoned in one of the first prosecutions of its kind.

Bazyli Rymarz, 22, was found to be in a gang that moved money using crypto-currency ATM machines dotted around the UK.

He was sentenced to more than five years last Thursday after an international police investigation.

He was arrested after he was caught driving a £130,000 Bentley Bentayga through the Port of Dover with 6,500 euros in a bag in January 2020.

Kent Police's Borders Investigation Unit then began looking into his group's activities with colleagues from other forces.

Investigators have since estimated that Rymarz and his accomplices was laundered around £2 million between September 2018 and January 2020.

Much of the money was moved out of Britain through bank accounts and by physically carrying cash on planes and across the Channel.

Crypto-currency ATM machines allow users to convert cash into crypto-currencies and there ia a lack of requirement for users to provide identification or record transactions.

Crypto-currency is a secured digital or virtual currency that is hard to counterfeit.

Investigators found that machines that Rymarz's group were involved with were used by those behind frauds where victims were contacted and falsely told they owed money to British authorities.

They paid money into the ATMs, only to later find out they had been scammed.

No evidence was found that Rymarz was personally involved in these frauds but he was found to have been laundering the criminal money.

In March 2019, he was caught with £10,500 in cash at Luton Airport. The money was seized and a civil investigation was initiated into the network he was part of.

That October a car he was driving at 120mph on the M6 in the Midlands was stopped for speeding. Cash totalling £38,000 and 13,600 euros was found in it.

He was arrested and released but stopped, in January 2020, driving the Bentley, for which he was not insured, through the Port of Dover. He couldn't explain the origin of the 6,500 euros found in his car.

His home in Watford was then searched and another £5,400 and 8,200 euros were found there.

Investigations found cash was often split into multiple smaller amounts before being deposited into bank accounts to avoid attracting attention.

Rymarz was charged with money laundering offences following his arrest, but absconded abroad after being released on bail by a court in March 2020.

He was found in Italy and extradited to the UK after being convicted of being concerned in a money laundering arrangement between September 2018 and March 2020.

He was sentenced to five years and nine months at Canterbury Crown Court. The judge found he played a "significant, not leading" role in the enterprise.

The judge also ordered that a £100,000 security, which had been paid into court in relation to the case before Rymarz absconded, should be forfeited.

On November 2 financial investigators successfully obtained Civil Forfeiture Orders totalling almost £500,000. This related to cash seizures and frozen bank account applications that had been obtained against this group alongside the criminal investigation.

Det Con Kirsty Baker, Kent Police's investigating officer, said after the court hearing: "The professional curiosity of officers at the Port of Dover, and a long-running and thorough investigation by police and partners, has led to the uncovering of the full extent of this criminal enterprise.

"This is understood to be the first prosecution of its kind in the country and demonstrates that, as criminals adapt to new methods of laundering their proceeds of crime, the police will adapt as well."

As part of the investigation, detectives in Kent Police have worked with partners in ERSOU

(Eastern Region Special Operations Unit), a group of eastern England police forces tackling organised crime.

Also dealing with the case were West Midlands Police, Hertfordshire Police, the CPS, the Metropolitan Police National Extradition Unit and police forces in France, Italy, Austria and Poland.