Master forgers printed nearly pnds stlg 1.2 millio

Master forgers printed nearly pnds stlg 1.

2 million worth of ‘high quality’ counterfeit ten pound notes in a single night, a court heard today (Tues)

The notes were complete but for the ‘hot-foiling’ process that inserts the familiar metal strip.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard the money was produced from plates and negatives used by unknown criminals on an earlier occasion and discovered in circulation.

The quality of the finished product was high enough for one ‘tenner’ to be disgorged by an ATM machine.

The court was told the crucial plates and negatives have never been found by detectives.

Brian O’Neill, prosecuting, said: ‘On the evening and night of Saturday February 14 last year and continuing into the early hours of the following day.

Richard Parrott, James Taylor and Nigel Osbourne made a lot of money.

‘Counterfeit money, almost pnds stlng 1.

2 million of it, in pnds stlng 10 notes.

‘Not bad for a night’s work.

‘

He said Osbourne was a skilled printer and director of business Community Press in Basildon, Essex, printing the forgeries at the company’s base in Repton Court, a light industrial estate.

Mr O’Neill said the printer was recruited by Taylor and Parrott, who were present during the print run.

And Parrott’s younger brother John, was arrested two days later in possession of forgeries of the same ‘type’ when police raided his Churchill Box Company premises in Leyton, East London.

Osbourne, 35, of First Avenue, Chelmsford, Essex, and Richard Parrott, 60, of Hertford Road, Hackney, admitted conspiracy to make counterfeit currency.

John Parrott, 59, of Clayhill Avenue, Ilford, Essex, admitted having custody and control of counterfeit currency.

Taylor, 51, of Cloudesley Place, Islington, North London, skipped bail and is on the run.

Osbourne was jailed for three years, by Judge George Bathurst-Norman.

Sentencing him the judge said: ‘A printer on these occasions pays an absolutely vital role.

‘

He accepted the printer was recruited at the last moment, tempted because he faced possible bankruptcy at the time over a debt owing to his former father-in-law, and further discounted the jail term because of the ‘substantial help’ Osbourne gave police.

‘Offences such as this, which undermine the currency, are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified,’ said the judge.

‘But I take into account that none of the notes you printed reached the public because the police intervened first.

‘

Richard Parrott was jailed for three years and nine months after being described as an ‘important link’ between the printer and underworld figures ‘higher up the tree.

‘

The judge said the defendant had ferried Taylor around in a van from his brother’s company, had made at least one attempt to ‘hot foil’ other notes, and was arrested guarding the ‘red hot merchandise’ produced at Repton Court.

He accepted Richard Parrott would not name higher ranking gang members for the ‘fear of reprisals to himself and his family.

‘

John Parrott was sentenced to 200 hours community service.

Pnds stlng 1,980 worth of counterfeits were found in his desk at the factory.

He told police he was ‘looking after them for someone.

‘

However, it was claimed he intended to hand in the counterfeits after making his own inquiries about the forgeries.

Judge Bathurst-Norman commented: ‘I strongly
suspect if it turned out they were linked to your brother you might not have gone through with that intention.

‘

Earlier the court heard Richard Parrott and Taylor had stayed at the Quays Premier Lodge after completing the print run at Repton Court and ferried the notes back to London the following day rather than risk being stopped in the early hours.

They did not know their movements were being watched by detectives.

However, they escaped one scare when they were stopped by police on patrol in Romford – managing to brave out a brief search of the van, where the boxes of forgery were hidden behind sacks of building refuse.

Osbourne was arrested and Unit Nine at Repton Court searched.

From inside and on the floor around an industrial guillotine were discovered trimmings from pnds stlng 10 notes.

And the ‘blankets’ on a Heidelberg four colour printer were discovered to have images of the notes, while a torn piece of paper also bore the images of the bank notes.

On February 14, Richard Parrott was arrested at his then home in Hertford Street, Islington.

He was found to have three forgeries in his trouser pocket and inside the white van were discovered the remaining pnds stlng 1.

2 million of counterfeits.

Another team of detectives searched the Churchill Box Company.

Two sacks full of off-cuts and shredded paper bearing images of pnds stlng 10 notes were discovered beside an incinerator.

And a hot-foiling machine was seized, as well as pieces of silver foil and 50 A2 size sheets of paper bearing the Queen’s head.

Mr O’Neill said Osbourne was capable of running the Heidelberg press himself.

He said on a machine the plates did not print directly onto paper but first onto a rubber blanket before the ink was transferred to the paper.

The blankets, he said, were examined and found to contain images of the notes.

‘When the Bank of England receives counterfeit notes they are examined and categorised into types by identifying differences and similarities – counterfeits of the same type will share similarities
such as: counterfeit watermark image; serial number; printing flaws and visual appearance,’ said the barrister.

‘The notes seized in this case have been allocated the type E/10/16.

‘

He said the type first came to the attention of the authorities in December 1999.

‘Clearly there was at least one previous run producing this type of counterfeit before the events at Repton Court.

‘

Records of forgeries passed or seized – known as ‘dead utterings’ – are kept.

Mr O’Neill said as of December 31 last year E/10/16 notes with a potential value of pnds stlng 163,910 had been discovered in circulation.

By the end of last month, this figure had increased by a third, to pnds stlng 217,990.

‘The quality of the E/10/16 type of counterfeit was particularly high.

Indeed, a number of people who have been deceived had received their notes directly from the banking system,’ he said.

‘Most strikingly, one individual was passed one by a cashpoint machine on January 7, last year.

‘

When interviewed Osbourne said Richard Parrott and Taylor had arrived at his premises with plates and paper after he agreed to do a run of banknotes.

He said he did not know how much he would be paid but was promised the pair would ‘see him all right.

‘

He said they had brought nine printing plates corresponding to the makings of a pnds stlng 10 note and the four colours needed – four for the front, four for the back and one for the watermark.

ends