£11m heading for ISIS seized in five years

Scotland Yard says that a counter terrorism finance team has seized more than £11 million in the past five years, including money sent to relatives fighting for ISIS.

The National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit has contributed to 105 convictions for a range of offences from terrorist fundraising to fraud, with one of its largest cases involving dismantling a 38-strong network of criminals who conned 18 elderly people out of their life savings, totalling more than £1.2 million.

The gang’s relationship to terrorism funding is believed to have seen victims’ money transferred into the accounts of individuals travelling to Syria, though none of the gang were charged with terrorist offences.

Commander Clarke Jarrett, head of Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said: “Financial investigation is a crucial part of the counter- terrorism effort... it is stopping money from reaching the hands of terrorists or being used to fund terrorist attacks.”