CENTRAL NEWS SERVICE, PRESS ROOM, CENTRAL CRIMINAL

CENTRAL NEWS SERVICE, PRESS ROOM, CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, OLD BAILEY,

CENTRAL NEWS SERVICE, PRESS ROOM, CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, OLD BAILEY,

LONDON EC4.

TEL:01 236 OII6.

HIGH COURT, DECEMBER II, 1986/AVM.

FORGER 1

A 6O-YEAR-OLD EXMOUTH ELECTRICAL REPAIRER WHO SWITCHED TO
COUNTERFEITING 5OP COINS AFTER WINNING #2,OOO ON DAILY EXPRESS BINGO
WAS FREED FROM PRISON ON THURSDAY BY THE CRIMINAL APPEAL COURT IN
LONDON.

AFTER HEARING GEOFFREY MOORE OF LONG CAUSEWAY PRESENT HIS
APPEAL FROM THE DOCK AGAINST HIS FOUR-YEAR SENTENCE, MR.

JUSTICE
CAULFIELD SAID:’HE HAS SERVED SUFFICIENT IMPRISONMENT’.

HE SAID THE COURT WOULD SUBSTITUTE A SENTENCE SO MOORE COULD
BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY AND IT WOULD ALSO QUASH A FORFEITURE ORDER ON

HIS MACHINERY.

ARGUING THAT HE HAD BEEN GIVEN TOO-LONG A SENTENCE, MOORE TOLD
THE COURT:’I’D GIVEN UP MAKING COINS BEFORE I GOT NICKED.

TO GET
CONVICTED ON THE LAST FEW COINS I PASSED WAS A BIT MUCH’.

HE RECALLED: ‘I WON #2,OOO ON THE DAILY EXPRESS BINGO AND THAT

WENT ON PLAYING ABOUT WITH MAKING COINS.

‘I DON’T RECOMMEND IT’, HE ADDED.

‘THEY’RE NOT A GREAT
SUCCESS’.

MR.

JUSTICE CAULFIELD SAID MOORE HAD BEEN ARRESTED AFTER
‘ALERT’ MORETON HAMPSTEAD NEWSAGENT MRS.

PATRICIA MARSHALL HAD TAKEN
HIS CAR NUMBER AND CALLED POLICE.

SHE HAD SEEN HIM GIVE A 5OP COIN FOR A BOX OF MATCHES IN
ANOTHER SHOP AND RECEIVE 47P CHANGE.

HE THEN APPEARED IN HER SHOP TO BUY ANOTHER BOX WITH A 5OP
COIN.

‘SHE DECIDED IT DID NOT MATCH THE PERFECTION OF A COIN OF THE
REALM’, SAID THE JUDGE.

‘HE SAID IT WAS POSSIBLY FROM IRELAND OR SOME

OTHER PLACE AND THEN PRESENTED A #1 COIN’.

POLICE FOUND A BOX OF COINS OF UNDER 5OP IN VALUE IN HIS CAR.

‘HE SAID HE HAD FOUND THEM IN WASHING MACHINES HE HAD REPAIRED’, THE
APPEAL JUDGE SAID.

AT HIS ‘LOVELY DETACHED HOUSE’ POLICE FOUND MACHINERY FOR
REPAIRING WASHING MACHINES HAD BEEN MODIFIED — ‘WITH MONEY WON ON
NEWSPAPER BINGO’ — FOR COUNTERFEIT COIN PRODUCTION,

AND THEY DISCOVERED I,OOO OR SO BLANKS AND 35O COINS MADE BY
MOORE, WHO CONFESSED HE HAD BEEN COUNTERFEITING SINCE 1984.

‘HE SAID HE HADN’T MADE MUCH MONEY OUT OF IT AND THAT HE ONLY
USED TO COINS WHEN MAKING SMALL PURCHASES IN THE WEST COUNTRY’, SAID
THE JUDGE.

HE ADDED: ‘MOORE IS NO STRANGER TO CRIME — HE COULD BE
DESCRIBED AS BEING IN THE FIRST DIVISION.

HE HAS FALLEN INTO CRIME
ABOUT EVERY IO YEARS SINCE HE WAS 2O.

THE LAST TIME HE WAS SENTENCED
TO 12 YEARS.

HE IS A FAIRLY BLASE PRISONER’.

QUASHING THE MACHINERY FORFEITURE ORDER IMPOSED WHEN MOORE
APPEARED AT EXETER CROWN COURT IN JULY, THE JUDGE COMMENTED:’THE
MACHINERY IS PLAINLY GOING TO BE USED LAWFULLY TO ALLOW HIM TO MAKE
SOME INCOME’.

END