Deposit box bosses accused of cover-up

Two directors of a safe deposit box company appeared in court today accused of conspiring to hide criminal activity.

Milton Woolf, 53, and Jacqueline Swan, 45, were responsible for a security company at the centre of a huge Scotland Yard inquiry.

Detectives continue to examine the contents of thousands of boxes removed from offices in Park Lane, Hampstead, and Edgware, London.

Details of a large number of charges against the pair were revealed during a hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

They are jointly accused of conspiring to breach the Proceeds of Crime Act by failing to tell police of suspicions that money was being laundered on their property.

The two also faced charges of possessing false Portuguese passports, a false birth certificate, two fake bank cheques, a blank marriage certificate and six stolen passports.

Woolf, of Golders Green, north-west London, faced a total of 24 charges linked to the business.

These included allegations he possessed forged US Dollar bonds, blank Nigerian birth certificates, a revolver and 26 cartridges of ammunition.

Swan, of Barnet, north London, faced a total of 11 charges including allegations she concealed criminal property.

A third person, Leslie Sief, 61, of West Hampton, north-west London, a former director of the company, also appeared in court.

He is jointly accused with Woolf of possessing fake notes worth a total of 60,000 US dollars between January 1996 and June 2008.

District Judge Daphne Wickham adjourned the case until January 6 at Southwark Crown Court. All three defendants were released on unconditional bail.

In June last year officers began searching 6,717 boxes at depositories controlled by Safe Deposit Centres Limited. The three directors were arrested.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's specialist crime directorate are responsible for the inquiry, codenamed Operation Rize.