The gang, whose average age is 60, set up an impressive hierarchical system, with production sites in London and Glasgow producing notes which were sent to the Chiswick address to be "foiled" and finished up. At its peak, their mini-mint was capable of churning out £800 worth of "almost faultless" £20 and €50 notes every half hour — a pony every minute. Quids in.
According to a source at the Bank of England, the forged notes were nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, with only the quality of ink and the watermark having any noticeable flaw, details that your average punter wouldn't readily spot. Though the notes went into circulation in Europe, it's thought they have now all been recovered.
The gang ranged in age from 29 to 83, though most hovered around their late 50s and early-to mid-60s — old enough to know better, you'd think. Yet we've been reporting over the past 18 months a worrying trend for crinkly criminality, and not just the small stuff either: we're talking hacking into banks and multimillion pound fraud alongside the odd bit of antisocial behaviour. A growing, worrying trend. Perhaps it's time the Mayor laid on some after-backgammon activities to stop our bored senior citizens slipping into late-life lawlessness.
