EncroChat: Gary Hughes’s six-year laundering sentence survives appeal
The Court of Appeal dismissed Gary Hughes’s sentence appeal on 6 October 2026. The cash handler, who used the name Guppy Salah, had admitted nine money-laundering offences.
The judgment says EncroChat data exposed Hughes’s banking work for a group dealing drugs on a commercial scale. He collected, counted, stored and moved cash and maintained accounts. His offending involved £1,043,595 and €124,850. In March 2026 he received six years in prison after a one-third reduction for his guilty pleas.
Hughes challenged the highest culpability category under the money-laundering guideline, arguing that he followed others’ instructions and handled straightforward cash transactions. He also disputed the increase reflecting the underlying drug trade and the adequacy of the reasoning on delay and personal mitigation.
The court pointed to counting machinery, detailed ledgers, covert communications and token-based transactions. It found that he played an important, trusted banking role in a carefully coordinated enterprise. The sentencing judge had considered delay and personal circumstances. Finding the sentence neither manifestly excessive nor wrong in principle, the court dismissed the appeal.
