A jury has still not reached a verdict in the case of a bureau de change owner alleged to have helped a £61m cannabis ring launder their money.

Asim Bashir, 35, of The Drive, Ilford, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court facing charges of money laundering at the World Currency Exchange (WCE) in Aldgate.

The six men and six women of the jury were sent out on Thursday afternoon after being directed to try and come up with a unanimous decision.

Detectives allege he was knowingly laundering millions of pounds of "dirty money" from what prosecutors say may be Britain’s largest ever cannabis ring.

Eight men including Mark Kinnimont, 39, of Claremont Road, Surbiton, Terrence Bowler, 37, of St Albans Road, Kingston, and Peter Brown, 37, of Kings Henry’s Road, Kingston, have already pleaded guilty to being involved in the drugs ring which imported cannabis from Holland, storing drugs and money in lock-ups and homes in Kingston and Sutton.

Mr Bashir insists he was the unwitting victim of the drug conspiracy.

His QC, David Waters, told the court: “They will usually use people who are of good character. People who are unlikely to, or less likely to attract police attention.

“If you are recruited to launder money and you are in on it you inevitably face more of the risks. Being caught may effectively destroy your life and require very substantial returns to run such a risk.

“Much better if you can use others.”

The prosecution claimed Mr Bashir knew about the drug money, but Mr Waters said: “Asim Bashir was legitimate throughout. He said ‘I didn’t suspect or have reason to suspect’.

“But even if he had, that would not make him guilty. Are you sure he was laundering the proceeds of drug supply? Not that he knew it was something dodgy, not that he knew it was something criminal, but that he knew it was drugs?”

He claimed the reason Pakistani businessman Dilauar Hussein’s name - the man Mr Bashir told the court was the real recipient of the drug money through WCE - was not on any of his records was because Mr Bashir feared an employee would leave the company and steal one of his biggest customers.

And he said while in charge of WCE, Mr Bashir had in fact tipped off the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) on four occasions about suspicious transactions - in one case being prepared to go to court to give evidence.

He said: “Do you think he would have put his head above the parapet like that? Would he report them in the knowledge or at least expectation investigating officers from Soca would be visiting him at WCE with a possibility that someone might walk in with a bag of dirty money?”