A man has been jailed after he admitted transferring stolen cash and money laundering.

Lima Da Costa Neto set up two bank accounts at a bank in Chatham High Street in exchange for £5,000.

The 26-year-old claimed in an interview that while working as an Uber driver, his car had broke down and he needed the money to fix it.

A friend had offered him cash in exchange for opening the bank accounts, so he could avoid paying tax.

The account was used to make fraudulent transactions from a French company totalling £319,619.

The company received invoices which appeared to be sent from an internal email account.

Believing they were legitimate, the company paid the invoices and the money went to the two bank accounts.

Neto was arrested on February 16 and charged with money laundering.

He appeared at Maidstone Crown Court on Monday, July 29.

He was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars.

Detective Sergeant Marc Cananur of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate Economic Crime Unit said: "This was a complex fraud and Neto played a crucial role in facilitating it.

"Though it was fortunate in this instance that a proportion of the money was returned to the victim, frauds of this nature could devastate legitimate businesses and put people’s livelihoods in jeopardy."

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