The Scholar co-owner Wing Hei Leung admits proceeds of crime charge after police raid

Wing Hei Leung faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of dealing with more than $100,000 in proceeds of crime in March last year.

Leung, who co-owns an eatery called The Scholar, also admitted fabricating and disseminating false information with the intention of dishonestly influencing a public official in the exercise of their duty.

The court heard facts outlining the precise details of Leung's crimes were yet to be agreed, but the charges read to him indicated the dishonesty offence was also committed in March 2021.

Police documents previously tendered to the court in the case of a co-defendant, Courgette owner and confessed money launderer James Daniel Mussillon, 50, give some insight into the case against Leung.

They explain how police were intercepting the communications of alleged drug dealer Mohammed Al-Mofathel, 29, in October 2020 when the Holt man texted and phoned Leung about attending his business.

Leung featured in several more intercepted phone calls over the ensuing months, allegedly discussing money with Al-Mofathel in November 2020 and telling him he was "still waiting for the paper".

One afternoon in March 2021, police followed Leung's white Land Rover Discovery from The Scholar to his home in Palmerston and executed a search warrant.

During a search of the house, officers looked in the main bedroom's wardrobe and found a backpack that contained shopping bags. One of them had Al-Mofathel's fingerprints on it.

Inside these were various vacuum-sealed bags, which held a total of $153,600 in cash.

Leung participated in a police interview the following day, when he is said to have told investigators some of the money was from his businesses or his family, while he had borrowed $100,000 of it from a friend and fellow restaurant owner named James.

Mussillon spoke to police the same night and allegedly said he had loaned $100,000 to a person called "Duncan", which is a name Leung has been known to use.

The Courgette owner claimed the $100,000 in cash had come from a $350,000 withdrawal he had made in September the previous year, but police investigations found no evidence this had occurred.

Following the entry of Leung's two guilty pleas on Thursday, prosecutor Julia Churchill withdrew charges of money laundering, making or using false evidence and using a false document.

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Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker then committed Leung to the ACT Supreme Court for sentence and continued his bail, adding a new condition that takes the total number of terms to 11.

Leung's case is due to go before the superior court's registrar next Thursday for an administrative hearing, which the man does not need to attend if a lawyer is there to represent him.

Mussillon is also currently on bail, having been freed to await his sentencing after he pleaded guilty in March to charges of money laundering, perjury, obtaining property by deception, making false evidence, and general dishonesty influencing a public official.

Al-Mofathel is, meanwhile, behind bars on remand at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

He has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that include drug trafficking and money laundering.

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