Joe Calzaghe’s model ex spared jail after helping move millions of pounds in £104m cash smuggling ring
JOE Calzaghe’s glamour model ex has been spared jail after helping to move millions of pounds in a £104million cash smuggling ring.
Jo-Emma Larvin, 44, hid the dirty money in luggage before flying from Heathrow to Dubai.
The model, who dated the Welsh boxer for six years until 2009, moved £5million in total over two trips.
Calzaghe was not involved in the cash smuggling network.
Larvin, who now describes herself as a “safari specialist” and wildlife photographer has now been spared jail.
She was instead sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years.
Larvin was convicted of removing criminal property from the UK alongside five others at Isleworth Crown Court.
Her partner Jonathan Johnson, who helped move the cash, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years.
The couple will carry out a combined 300 hours of unpaid work and will be on a curfew for the next six months.
Sentencing Larvin, Judge Sarah Paneth said: “My own assessment of you, observing you give evidence and throughout the trial is someone who has many positive qualities.
“You are indeed a very kind and caring person, and this offending is completely out of character I have no doubt you feel the burden of Mr Johnson’s involvement but you did not recruit him, he was, in my judgment, keen to be involved in an opportunity you had come across by chance.”
Jurors heard smugglers were paid £3,000 per trip and treated to an all-expenses-paid holiday in the UAE.
They were recruited into the racket by mum-of-two “kingpin” Michelle Clarke, 42, who is still on the run.
In her first trip, Larvin took £2.2million in seven suitcases when travelling with Amy Harrison, 27.
She also flew from Heathrow with partner Jonathan Johnson, 55, in September 2020 carrying £2.8million in eight suitcases.
Anything over 10,000 Euros leaving the EU has to be declared to HMRC, but the smugglers’ suitcases usually contained up to £500,000.
The National Crime Agency found the mules carried £104million out of the country on 83 Emirates flights from Heathrow to Dubai.
Clarke had set up a WhatsApp group called “Sunshine and Lollipops” to organise the racket.
Her smugglers would fly business so they could take more luggage with them then stuff English and Scottish notes in their checked-in suitcases.
This also meant they could check in later, which lowered their chances of being caught.
Once they arrived in Dubai, the mules would hand over a letter from a company called Omnivest that authorised them carrying the cash.
During her first trip, Larvin sent messages to partner Johnson, saying she was “in at the deep end”.
Johnson is said to have told her: “You need to be super careful,” adding: “I like your enterprise but the threat of clink [sic]” – slang for jail.
He also messaged Larvin two days before a trip to Dubai, saying taking eight suitcases with them was “taking the p**s”.
Larvin told jurors it was the “worst decision” of hers and Johnson’s lives to take the cash and claimed she believed she was flying the money out for the UAE Embassy.
Larvin and Johnson were convicted alongside Beatrice Auty, 26, from Fulham, West London.
She was handed a three-and-a-half year jail term at the sentencing hearing today.
Liam Rabone, 29, of West Kensington, was cleared of the charge.
Kingpin Abdulla Alfalasi, 48, from Dubai, was jailed for more than nine years last July after he was nicked at an apartment in swanky Belgravia, central London.
Recruitment consultant Tara Hanlon, 32, described as a “Kim Kardashian-lookalike”, was caged for nearly three years in 2022 for money laundering offences.
Mum-of-two Michelle Clarke, 42, who is said to have recruited Auty, is on the run.
Amy Harrison, who was also convicted of the same charge alongside Larvin, Johnson and Auty, was given a suspended sentence.