A RECORD cash windfall of £236k has been obtained by Thames Valley Police after a suspect was cleared of money laundering charges.

Police arrested Mari Van Gerwen, a Dutch national, on Christmas Eve 2015 and recovered nearly 10 kilograms of cocaine and £22,000 in cash in a horse transport vehicle in Binfield.

Officers later discovered a further sum of £213k at a nearby residential address, including more than £200k found inside a suitcase in a wardrobe.

All of the money was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act and a cash forfeiture order was made at at Reading Magistrates' Court on April 25.

It is believed to be the largest ever contested order of it's kind to be obtained by Thames Valley Police.

Marcus Webb, the financial investigator for this case, said: “This was a very complex case involving enquiries with several overseas jurisdictions and several hundred pages of evidence were obtained for the cash forfeiture application.

“We obtained UK banking evidence and material from The Netherlands. The positive result was greatly assisted by the collaboration of a number of agencies within the UK and overseas.”

Gerwen denied charges of drugs supply and money laundering and was later acquitted by a jury after an eight-day trial at Reading Crown Court in July 2016.

Although the suspect was cleared, the legitimacy of the detained cash was questioned and was later obtained through the forfeiture order.

Detective inspector Gavin Tyrrell added: “This case highlights that even without a criminal conviction, powers exist within the Proceeds of Crime Act to deprive monies deemed, on the balance of probabilities, to be related to crime.”