De La Rue faces £35m hit to first-half profit

Updating on its investigation into production errors at its banknote plant in southern England which were first revealed in July, the firm said yesterday the behaviour of some of its staff was "totally unacceptable".

"Some of the company's employees have deliberately falsified certain paper specification test certificates for a limited number of customers," it said.

De La Rue has reported its findings to the relevant law enforcement agencies and taken "appropriate disciplinary action". A company spokesman declined to say if any employees had been dismissed but said the managing director of the currency division had left the company.

"If there is any good news from this, it's that they've quantified the extent of the financial hit. The bad news is that it appears to be much larger than anyone anticipated," said Paul Jones, analyst at Panmure Gordon.

A spokesman for the Serious Fraud Office said the agency had been contacted by the company.

"The company has reported some concerns to us. We've noted those, we are alert to them and will have further discussions with the company," he said.