A CROOKED PRINTER WHO USED HIS PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

A CROOKED PRINTER WHO USED HIS PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TO
COUNTERFEIT OVER #20,000 WORTH OF CAR TAX DISCS WAS CAUGHT OUT
WITH ONE OF HIS OWN FORGERIES, A COURT HEARD.

SHARP EYED P.

C.

‘S MARTIN KEMPTON AND IAN QUINTON NABBED 26
-YEAR-OLD PRINTER DAVID STEPHENSON AFTER A ROUTINE CHECK ON HIS
CAR REVEALED A FORGED TAX DISC, SOUTHWARK CROWN COURT HEARD.

AND AFTER QUESTIONING, STEPHENSON OF WALTHAM ROAD,
WOODFORD GREEN, ILFORD, ESSEX ADMITTED A PLAN TO COUNTERFEIT
OVER 250 DISCS WAS HATCHED WITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER LEE
TOWNSEND,24, AND 21-YEAR-OLD XEROX COPIER ASHLEY FITTS.

TWONSEND OF BUXTON CLOSE WOODFORD GREEN, AND FITTS OF
PENRYN STREET, CAMDEN TWON WERE ARRESTED SEVERAL DAYS LATER.

AT SOUTHWARK CROWN COURT THE TRIO WERE EACH JAILED FOR TWO
YEARS AFTER THEY ADMITTED CONSPIRACY TO FORGE THE DISCS BETWEEN
SEPTEMBER AND DECEMBER LAST YEAR.

THE COURT HEARD STEPHENSON ADMITTED PRINTING BETWEEN 200
AND 400 DISCS FROM HIS CLERKENWELL OFFICE WITH THE ARTISTIC HELP
OF TOWNSEND AND FITTS WHO ACTED AS ‘BOOK KEEPER AND GOFER’.

AND A POLICE SEARCH AT THE PRINTWORKS SHORTLY AFTERWARDS
REVEALED A NUMBER OF ‘VERY PROFESSIONAL’ FORGERIES FOUND THROWN
AWAY WITH THE FORGERY PLATES.

MR RECORDER CHRISTOPHER COCHRAINE COMMENDED SHARP-EYED
POLICE CONSTABLES MARTIN KEMPTON AND IAN QUINTON FROM WOODFORD
POICE STATION FOR ‘NIPPING THE CONSPIRACY IN THE BUD’.

ENDS.

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