Forgers 'put UK economy at risk' in cash scam

The men, including four from Yorkshire and another from North East Lincolnshire, passed on high-quality fake 20 notes with a face value of 15m and fake 50 euro notes worth 7.9m. One member also smelted counterfeit 2 and 1 coins and another spray-painted them.

After they were arrested in September last year, the Bank of England recorded a 75 per cent drop in the number of fake 20 notes in circulation. South Yorkshire.

Police said the group was linked to the "organised wholesale distribution of counterfeit currency running into millions of pounds".

Yesterday gang members were jailed for a total of more than 20 years at Sheffield Crown Court.

Chief Insp Andy Thompson said afterwards: "The amount of cash we seized is an indication of the significant amounts that were distributed. It de-stabilises the UK economy both locally and nationally when notes of this quality flood the market."

Police seized about 315,000 in counterfeit notes. It is thought they were being turned out in the South East but those masterminding the operation have never been caught.

Their operation was broken up by an undercover police investigation involving a South Yorkshire officer codenamed Jamie. He infiltrated the gang, ordered large batches of the counterfeit cash and paid more than 19,000 for fake currency.

Richard Clews, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court, the going rate was about one-third of the face value of the cash but often much less.

Judge Alan Goldsack said the gang had undermined trust in the currency and added: "Only you know how much you did make. I'm not surprised you all claim it was very little. Clearly some of you made rather more than you were prepared to admit."

In the gang were Malcolm Moate, 56, of Lansdowne Close, Thurnscoe, Barnsley; Derrick Davies, 46, of Grove Road, Attleborough, Norfolk; Peter Edwards, 57, of Pickard Street, London; Yasin Patel, 45, of Glenfield Close, Blackburn; Michael Maddon, 66, of Beckett Street, Burmantofts, Leeds; Norman Oliver, 62, of Goole; Terence Quinn, 59, of Brigsley House, Immingham; and Michael Kinghorn, 63, of Stafford Street, Barnsley.

All eight pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring to pass counterfeit notes and coins between September 16, 2008 and September 12 last year.

Patel also pleaded guilty to two counts relating to the manufacture of counterfeit coins and Davies admitted having a false passport and making a false statement in order to obtain it.

Moate, 56, and Davies, had a large farmhouse at Attleborough, Norfolk and appeared to have made the most money.

Moate was jailed for four years, Oliver got 18 months in jail and Patel was given four-and-a half years in prison. Madden described as a "runner", was given 18 months in jail.

The judge said Davies had a previous jail sentence for trade mark offences and was "clearly a man who makes large profits from crime". He was jailed for five years and three months.

Peter Edwards, a friend of Davies, was jailed for two-and-a-half years; Quinn for 12 months; and Kinghorn for16 months.