A WOMAN who loaned her friend £50 has claimed that it led to her mum's house being raided by cops and her ending up with a criminal record.
Ebony King, 32, was in her final year at secondary school in 2010 and had secured a place at a London university to study psychology.
An old family friend allegedly asked her to borrow £50 and repaid her two months later, but she claims he overpaid her by several hundred pounds.
"I called him immediately to let him know," Ebony told This is Money. "He said it must have been an accident and could I please get the cash from the bank and give it back to him.
"I didn't question it — I handed him the cash and thought that was the end of it."
Six months later police raided her mum's house in Dagenham, East London.
The money sent to her was said to have been obtained by an online scam and by handing over cash Ebony had become complicit in the handling of laundered money.
Ebony claimed that she thought she was just helping a friend, but was convicted of concealing, converting, removing and transferring criminal property.
Her family friend was never charged or convicted.
She continued: "It could have ruined my life. They used me as a scapegoat and acted like I was the mastermind behind the operation. I was still a teenager.
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"I got rejected for jobs and had a terrible credit rating for a very long time. I was lucky and found employers who listened to my story and understood what had happened."
Ebony described how she struggled to "trust anyone" after she was convicted of money muling.
She went on to work as a patient adviser at the NHS and studied psychology and counselling at the University of East London.
The mother-of-three founded Elevate Her UK in 2019 to empower young women and deliver mentoring to young mothers in hostels.
It comes after study of 1,000 18-30-year-olds found 32 per cent could have unknowingly engaged in this activity known as "money muling".
This type of fraud is being disguised as job adverts online offering an easy way to make quick money, where they keep a "commission" after sending the funds elsewhere.
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