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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this was dodgy?

81 replies

Spatchcocked · 19/12/2023 16:14

Let me preface this by saying this didn’t / doesn’t affect me at all and is incredibly low stakes, but I’m a nosy bugger and want to know what was going on!

I was in a large shopping centre today waiting to speak to customer services. In front of me was a woman who wanted to buy vouchers (you can purchase generic vouchers for the shopping centre which can be used in any shop). She bought £1000 of vouchers using cash from an envelope which honestly must have had thousands of pounds in cash inside. It took absolutely ages because they had to get a manager to check the notes.

My friend thought she was laundering drugs money, but I think it was undeclared income and she was buying vouchers so that she could get Christmas presents without having to have the money to pay for them in her account. A few shops in that centre are cashless now, or I suppose she could just have paid cash.

Am I unduly suspicious? Maybe there’s a totally legitimate reason why you would do this, but I couldn’t think of one!

OP posts:
Dacadactyl · 19/12/2023 16:55

It might just be her Christmas stash of cash. I have one too.

From mid Setpember I take hundreds out of our account and tell my DH to hide it from me til Dec. I top it up (again with cash) twice a month, every month til Dec.

Then come early December I start thinking about presents and start buying. Most often using cash, but sometimes I'll pay on my card if its a bigger purchase and I just pay the cash into the account to cover it.

Mumof2teens79 · 19/12/2023 16:55

Spatchcocked · 19/12/2023 16:22

I did say it was low stakes and doesn’t affect but mumsnet wouldn’t be mumsnet if people didn’t get to shout mind your business 😂

interesting some people are more likely to carry cash now than they used to, my experience is the opposite - so many businesses around here are becoming cashless.

my friend did suggest stripping but the notes were all £50s. Maybe she was a highly talented one!

50s are quite rare if you were saving cash week to week it wouldn't all be fifties....unless she had other notes too and for ease just decided to use the 50s.....transferring them to voucher makes sense as only need to be checked once....some places won't take 50s dye to risk of forgeries.

Any sort of cash work, legal or illegal.
It's not really laundering she is just buying stuff

OhComeOnFFS · 19/12/2023 17:02

Am I the only person who's never seen a £50 note? I can't think who'd use them really. If I take cash out it is always in £20 or £10 notes. There are hardly any banks near me, so I can't imagine people are regularly going there.

My sister had a job for a while working for a Russian oligarch as a nanny - they got paid in £50 notes. No paperwork, very dodgy people.

VisionsOfSplendour · 19/12/2023 17:03

Sauvblanctime · 19/12/2023 16:20

Could be self employed / a stripper / a drug dealer

either way

none of your business 🙄

So we're not allowed to muse about things?

I'd hate to meet some posters in real life, how insular to take no interest in life in general.

SparkyBlue · 19/12/2023 17:05

My parents only use cash which is crazy these days but there you are so it sounds like you were behind someone like my mum.

floofbag · 19/12/2023 17:05

I work in retail and lots of people do this .. obvs not paying tax and think they are superior to me because they have masses of cash .. it's obvs to me they are just trades people not paying tax 🙄

Afolnerd · 19/12/2023 17:13

I work in retail and cash use has definitely increased in the last year or so.
My dad mainly gets paid in cash and he gave me £5000 to pay my wedding venue in used notes. I was a bit worried if they would take it but they didn’t seem bothered.

GnomeDePlume · 19/12/2023 17:14

floofbag · 19/12/2023 17:05

I work in retail and lots of people do this .. obvs not paying tax and think they are superior to me because they have masses of cash .. it's obvs to me they are just trades people not paying tax 🙄

How do you know they aren't paying tax? Banks often charge business account holders for depositing cash (DH's did)

DH was often asked by customers to give them a discount for cash. He didn't as it all went through the books and cash cost him more. He would accept cash but preferred bank transfer.

Cash doesn't mean undeclared.

Dacadactyl · 19/12/2023 17:15

floofbag · 19/12/2023 17:05

I work in retail and lots of people do this .. obvs not paying tax and think they are superior to me because they have masses of cash .. it's obvs to me they are just trades people not paying tax 🙄

You sound like you've got a chip on your shoulder!

Plenty of people use cash.

MistressoftheDarkSide · 19/12/2023 17:15

Ah, the brainwashing continues .... cash bad, dodgy, criminal, tax fraud......

Just wait until we all are locked into CDBCs only and our spending is scrutinised, controlled and judged by AI. That'll be fun......

VolvoFan · 19/12/2023 17:20

She probably doesn't want people to know how much she's spent on things. Although that doesn't really work this close to Christmas. I don't know. I suppose it could be undeclared income.

Edit 2: It could be she was keeping money aside over the course of the year.

PauliesWalnuts · 19/12/2023 17:20

When I was an EA to a CEO our SLT traditionally bought John Lewis vouchers as a thank you for their assistants. They'd bring me c.£100 in cash each and I'd get the vouchers and the cards - that came to c.£1200 per Christmas. There's lots of reasons why people use cash.

itsmyp4rty · 19/12/2023 17:21

One of my older relatives was found to have £17,000 in a drawer when he went into hospital. God knows why as he had bank accounts too.

I think you'd have to be mad though to walk around with thousands of pounds in cash and even madder to just flash it around whenever you buy something!

BubbleBubbleBubbleBubblePop · 19/12/2023 17:25

It could be dodgy. It could be totally legit. We have clients who are under financial appointeeship, so we manage their money. They aren't allowed access to their bank accounts so they are given regular sums of cash, and they may ask for a larger sum at Christmas to buy friends and relatives gifts. It could be something like that.

HelpINeedSomebodyToTakeThisAway · 19/12/2023 17:28

Paid for our new roof in cash.
No, we didn’t get a discount! FIL had been taking his pension out each week and just keeping it in his wardrobe. He handed several thousands over to DH and we just used it for the roof when the time came. Weirdly, we didn’t feel safe carrying that amount through town to put into the bank account, plus we weren’t sure how to explain it without them thinking we were laundering money!

jay55 · 19/12/2023 17:29

They could be running a Christmas club and ran out of time to order the vouchers so had to get them in person.

But yeah, money laundering far more likely.

ManateeFair · 19/12/2023 17:52

floofbag · 19/12/2023 17:05

I work in retail and lots of people do this .. obvs not paying tax and think they are superior to me because they have masses of cash .. it's obvs to me they are just trades people not paying tax 🙄

What bollocks. Just because someone has cash it doesn't mean they aren't paying tax.

floofbag · 19/12/2023 18:08

I do not have a chip on my shoulder but I do think everyone should pay tax .

It's very obvious the way they come in with it that it's money just earnt .

I didn't say everyone who pays cash doesn't pay tax but a lot of the trades people come and pay off their wives accounts with cash clearly just earnt .. they even say though themselves 🤷‍♀️.

VolvoFan · 19/12/2023 18:20

I always pay tradesmen in cash. I don't want the taxman's grubby fingers on money I've worked hard for. No tradesmen I've hired has ever complained.

GnomeDePlume · 19/12/2023 18:38

floofbag · 19/12/2023 18:08

I do not have a chip on my shoulder but I do think everyone should pay tax .

It's very obvious the way they come in with it that it's money just earnt .

I didn't say everyone who pays cash doesn't pay tax but a lot of the trades people come and pay off their wives accounts with cash clearly just earnt .. they even say though themselves 🤷‍♀️.

You still arent getting it. Just because someone has been paid in cash doesnt mean it isnt accounted for and declared for tax. My DH would get paid in cash then spend it in the supermarket rather than be charged for depositing it at the bank.

The invoice was marked as paid and the income recorded in his books.

Cash is just money.

rockingbird · 19/12/2023 18:41

@Catza I see your point, but it's also a bit of an issue really as it's easy to dodge the tax man paying cash for everything. Personally I'd never pay a builder cash as I'd want a record of the transaction. Same with the car mechanic etc.. the hairdresser was actively encouraging people to pay for their services by cash to dodge the tax man and no doubt walking round with wads of cash - fuck that, if I pay so do you.

Sauvblanctime · 19/12/2023 18:49

VisionsOfSplendour · 19/12/2023 17:03

So we're not allowed to muse about things?

I'd hate to meet some posters in real life, how insular to take no interest in life in general.

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yeah. Whatever you think love

PhulNana · 19/12/2023 20:08

@EdinGirl

Lots of my friends and my mum keep a certain amount of cash in the house now. A few months living costs worth.

A few grand in the house? Are they mad? That's just crazy nonsense. I haven't kept more than £5 in cash for 2 or 3 years.

VolvoFan · 19/12/2023 20:12

As a general rule of thumb, you should have at least a month's worth of wages. That can be in cash in the house, or it can be digital in the bank. It's a safety net should you suddenly lose your job, ie redundancy. A month is the average length of time it takes to find and get started in a new job.

randomusernam · 19/12/2023 20:14

She could run a business and was buying vouchers for bonuses and using the cash from the days taking. You have no idea that it was illegal money.