A Lewisham man was jailed for six and a half years after pleading guilty to laundering nearly £20.7m of criminal money.

Abdullah Rahim, 34, of Belmont Park, and three of his associates were sentenced to a total of 21 years and two months after pleading guilty to laundering millions of pounds of criminal assets abroad.

City of London police officers arrested two of Rahim's associates in Belmont Park carrying £35,000 in cash on September 11 last year.

Iftekahn Choudhary, 30 and Brian Mcinerney,53 of Islington, were going to be hand the money over to Rahim to be transferred to Dubai and then further across the globe in an attempt to launder the cash.

On the same day, officers arrested Rahim at his home address and found a laptop containing spreadsheets documenting illegal movements of £20.7m between January 8 and September 10 last year.

Police also raided a shop Rahim owned in Whitechapel where he transferred the criminal money abroad and found 2,610 printed transaction slips dated between August 28 and September 11 last year for around £700.

Fake details were found on the transaction slips.

City of London Police Detective Constable Darren Norman said: "This gang was directly responsible for the illegal transfer of £20m of criminal money abroad.

"They faked thousands of transaction receipts using two businesses in an attempt to hide their criminal actions.

"This is criminal money being transferred around the globe in an attempt to make the money look legitimate and hide it from law enforcement agencies worldwide."

Zaka Din, 46, of Norbury, another associate of Rahim's was arrested on September 2 last year for orchestrating illegal cash exchanges from the UK using his travel agent business. Confiscation orders will now take place against Din and Rahim.