14miilion forged pound coins floating around

[ageezer]

Counterfeiter produced 14m bogus £1 coins


Agency
Saturday December 15, 2007
The Guardian

A forger who produced an estimated 14m counterfeit £1 coins over seven years has been jailed. At one stage Marcus Glindon, 37, was producing up to 12,000 forged £1 coins a day, getting paid around £2,000 in genuine cash each week.

Police said the fake coins "flooded the economy", and other than the few they found at his address and workshop they could still be in circulation.

The Royal Mint said the fakes were "extremely difficult" for the public to differentiate from real ones.

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Glindon produced 2m-2.5m completed coins using special machinery, with the rest unfinished and passed to accomplices to be finished elsewhere.

He used a small workshop on an industrial estate in Enfield, north London, claiming he worked mainly alone, but under the instruction of two men he called Tom and John.

He said that he had never been given their real names. They would deliver materials to the location and take away the coins he produced, paying him in cash each week for his work.

Glindon said he believed the blank coins were taken elsewhere for finishing, though their ultimate destination has never been uncovered.

He was finally discovered when police received an anonymous tip-off alerting them to the scam.

Officers raided his home address in Enfield and his workshop, finding a range of machines used to manufacture coins, as well as various counterfeit dies with a number of designs on them.

Glindon was arrested in March this year and later charged with five offences.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce counterfeit coins and four other related offences when he appeared at Wood Green crown court in north London, and was jailed for five years.

Detective constable Dan Roberts, from the Major Crimes Unit, said: "This was a sophisticated operation run over a seven- year period which flooded the economy with counterfeit £1 coins.

"As a result of a collaboration between the police and the Royal Mint we have disrupted a nationwide criminal network and put a substantial dent into the illegal production of £1 coins."

[ageezer]

i thought that many of them that passed thru my hands looked dodgy .how many have you dug up?

[Karv]

Heres one, note the rough hole in the middle for weight adjustment and very poor detail.

[munkiezuncal]

We get hundreds every year in my job ( Famous Amusment Park). At the end of each season I take them over to the plumbers shop to get them melted down.

[Brianmo]

Blimey Karv, I could a 50 times better job than that :evil:

[Durham Dave]

Blimey Karv, I could a 50 times better job than that :evil:

a nice little earner bri :lol: ...........show us #job 1 when you get it done.

[Dandelion]

I heard of a blonde lass who could file down fifty pence piece`s to make ten pence piece`s.

:lol:

[garylq]

Floating around?

It will be very easy to spot the fake ones then, just put them in water and see whether they sink or not.

[cleveroonie]

Blimey Karv, I could a 50 times better job than that :evil:

You can make some for me - Ill give u 2 grand a week :lol: