Bring Foreign Savings to UK

Hi, I have some savings from my previous employment out of UK in my foreign bank current account from which I am not getting any savings. I want to bring that savings to my UK bank current account. For this a friend in UK asked me to transfer my foreign savings to another account to his family in same country out of UK in return he can transfer me UK Pounds in my UK bank account from his UK bank account. So eventually we both will be able to save a little from extra charges charged by currency conversion platforms like Western Union. All the transactions will be bank based without dealing with handing over cash, Two questions here: 1. Is this process of money transfer/conversion is safe and legal ? 2. Do I need to pay any tax for bringing my own money from foreign bank account to UK bank account? I have already paid tax on my foreign saved money. Thanks,

Hi
The risk in this process is entirely yours.  
Any income or gains arising outside the UK, in a tax year before you became resident, is not taxable in the UK.  
There is a possibility that your income/gains arising in the tax year that you became resident in the UK, may be taxable in the UK.  
To find out if this is the case, you will need to review your residence position and whether split year treatment applies.  
Have a look at :
Residence, domicile and the remittance basis: RDR1
and then the statutory residence tests at :
www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdr3-statutory-residence-test-srt
Thankyou.