The Dorset public school girl, the Russian mafia and a £300,000 bank account

An 18-year-old pupil at a girls' boarding school was found with £300,000 in her bank account - money suspected of being at the centre of a Russian mafia laundering operation.

Tamara Platash, who took her A-levels at Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset this year, aroused suspicions at her local bank branch when she tried to transfer £200,000 to an account in China.

	Tamara Platash tried to transfer £200,000

The bank alerted police who blocked the transfer and started an investigation. A total of £303,730.21 in the account has since been frozen.

Officers arrested Russian-born Miss Platash at the school and took her away for questioning. Her mother, Irina, a businesswoman, was arrested when she came over to England for the school's prize-giving ceremony at the end of term.

Police suspect that the money was the proceeds of Russian mafia crime in Britain or was being forwarded for use in criminal activities abroad.

The Crown Prosecution Service ruled that there was insufficient evidence to bring a prosecution against the Platashes and they were released without charge. But the £300,000 has been frozen by the Government's Assets Recovery Agency, which will now attempt to confiscate the money through the High Court.

The case has embarrassed staff at the 106-year-old Sherborne School for Girls, which, with fees of £20,000 a year, has 350 boarding pupils aged 11 to 18. The school, according to its prospectus, "honours the timeless traditions of honesty and integrity".