Christopher Eyre, 54, of Brayton, who used to run a solicitor’s practice in the town, was sentenced along with six men and one woman for his part in a series of offences relating to a £5m money laundering racket. Other charges included obtaining false passports and theft.

The sentence follows the conclusion of a joint five-year operation between a small team of detectives from Derbyshire and North Yorkshire Police, into the activities of a serious and organised criminal group.

The criminals, from the North Yorkshire and West Mercia areas, were investigated for multi-million pound thefts from UK and foreign banks, as well as obtaining false passports.

Inquiries were focused on the thefts and the laundering of stolen monies through company and offshore overseas accounts.

DI Adam Harland of NYP’s Financial Investigation Unit said: “This was a difficult and complex inquiry involving professional criminals assisted by a solicitor.

“They set out to defraud the banking system of millions of pounds and were only discovered in the last stages of these thefts.”

Four other people have been jailed for a total of more than 15 years between them.