A ROUTINE vehicle stop-check at Bluewater has led to police seizing more than £750,000 from a 70-year-old man.

Kent police have successfully used the Proceeds of Crime Act to confiscate the money from Peter Wells, of Cranham in Essex.

This follows officers finding £80,000 in cash in Mr Wells’ car when they stopped him at Bluewater shopping centre in August 2007 for a minor traffic offence.

A Kent police spokesman said Mr Wells told officers he had the cash in case he wanted to buy something, but could not explain where the money had come from.

Officers arrested him on suspicion of money laundering and then searched his chalet in Medway, finding £551,000 in cash, including £500,000 hidden in a wall behind a toilet cistern.

The police spokesman said: “Wells was interviewed to try to establish where the money had come from.

“Apart from confirming he had won £100,000 on the Dream Number lottery, he was vague as to the source or the intended use of the seized cash.”

Mr Wells, who has previous convictions in relation to supplying drugs, was charged with money laundering but acquitted after a trial at Maidstone Crown Court in September last year.

However, after the trial police applied to Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court and the High Court in London to confiscate a total of £763,901.

Mr Wells did not oppose the applications, and the courts approved the confiscation.

Detective Constable Michael Prior, from Kent police’s Serious Economic Crime Unit, said: “Although Wells was not convicted at court initially, by using Proceeds of Crime legislation we were able to remove a substantial amount of cash and assets which we believe resulted from criminal activity.”