--- description: A man found to be selling powdered laundry detergent as cocaine will now face sentencing for "possession of an article for use in fraud." title: British Man Who Sold Laundry Soap As Cocaine Guilty of Fraud image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # British Man Who Sold Detergent As Cocaine Guilty of Fraud by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 5, 2016 8:38 AM CUT by [Nash Jenkins](/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 5, 2016 8:38 AM CUT A British man found to be selling powdered laundry detergent as cocaine will now face sentencing for “possession of an article for use in fraud.” _The Telegraph_ [reports](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/04/conman-who-pretended-washing-powder-was-cocaine-guilty-of-defrau/ "undefined") that Jamie Lee Taylor, 27, spent two months making a “fair bit of money” by passing the powdered soap off as cocaine, a court in the Northeast English county of Middlesbrough heard. When he was arrested last month, Taylor was charged with fraud, and also with offering to sell cocaine — even though he was consciously _not_ selling the drug. “It’s an unusual case. He has not been supplying drugs to anyone,” defense attorney Alex Bousfield told _The Telegraph._ He could face up to six years in prison. \[[_The Telegraph_\]](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/04/conman-who-pretended-washing-powder-was-cocaine-guilty-of-defrau/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4519163/cocaine-laundry-detergent-drug-dealer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4519163/cocaine-laundry-detergent-drug-dealer/"},"headline":"British Man Who Sold Detergent As Cocaine Guilty of Fraud","datePublished":"2016-10-05T08:38:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:00:48.528Z","description":"\"It's an unusual case\"","url":"https://time.com/4519163/cocaine-laundry-detergent-drug-dealer/","keywords":["Drugs","Cocaine","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4519163/cocaine-laundry-detergent-drug-dealer/","name":"British Man Who Sold Detergent As Cocaine Guilty of Fraud"}}]}] ```