Laurence Howland is the Director Risk and Compliance of Buckles Solicitors LLP, with overall responsibility for the firm’s Anti-Money Laundering and Regulatory Compliance. Before joining Buckles, Laurence spent three years as a Senior Financial Investigator with the Solicitors Regulation Authority; prior to this, he served for thirty years with HM Revenue & Customs (previously HM Customs & Excise) as an accredited financial investigator leading criminal investigation teams dealing with money laundering, restraint and confiscation cases. Between 2010 and 2014, he was Fiscal Crime Liaison Officer appointed to the British Embassy in Beijing. He has spoken and written extensively on Informal Value Transfer Systems and underground money movements from the Far East and has given expert witness evidence on this subject.

 

In 2021 Laurence was awarded an MSc in Financial Investigation with Distinction from the University of Central Lancashire. He was also presented with the prestigious Martin Kenney Award for Outstanding Contribution to Financial Investigation.

 

Laurence has trained widely across the public and private sector on a range of topics, notably the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, the Bribery Act 2010, the facilitation of tax evasion provisions of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 and organisational risk management.