-Caveat Lector- http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/1999/12/23/timnwsnws01025.html?1124027 December 23 1999 Simple ingredients produced sophisticated fakes BY ADAM SHERWIN A COLOUR printer, tinfoil, a guillotine and thousands of sheets of white paper were all that was required to set up the biggest counterfeit currency operation in Britain. After four years of churning out forged notes, an annexe to the Essex home of retired printer Kenneth Mainstone had begun to rival the Royal Mint. Bags containing millions of pounds in fake �20 notes, each with a serial number allocated by the gang, were strewn on the floor. Police also discovered 75kg of brass discs, enough to produce 40,000 fake one-pound coins. A drawer contained the source of almost all the fake postage stamps circulating in Britain, plus stamps for British Gas stamps and television licences. Indeed, by the conclusion of Operation Mermaid, which involved the testing of 16,000 counterfeit notes, police had rooted out the source of two thirds of all the counterfeit currency circulating in Britain at the time. Few in Upminster questioned how Mainstone, an outwardly respectable businessman, had come to acquire a 14-room house, a personalised XJS Jaguar, a BMW and a two-seater plane. It was when Mainstone was approached by in 1994 by Stephen Jory, a man with underworld connections and a previous conviction for supplying counterfeit notes, that the project, which would eventually produce �50 million of fake money, was hatched. Jory, from Barnet, was seeing Mainstone's daughter, Clare. Mainstone agreed to print Jory's book, Super Grass, a fantasy account of his life of crime, but soon the pair received an optical disk, containing the artwork for the production of �20 notes, which was scanned into a computer. Then Mainstone produced a series of 17 lithoplates, which separated the different colours that make up each note. He then installed a four-colour offset lithograph Heidelberg press to produce the notes. The metallic thread was produced by "hot foiling", a process unwittingly aided by a company that was told it was producing perforation for packaging. Reams of paper were printed with a foil line down the whole sheet and white ink overlaid to produce the perforation effect. The "watermark" of the Queen's head was printed on before a 12-foot-long guillotine chopped the paper. The result was what Inspector Clive Merret, leader of the police investigation, described as "the most convincing forgery I have ever seen". The notes passed the ultraviolet test used by shopkeepers. Inspector Merret said the notes had only one flaw - on the flat surface of the script words "Bank of England" at the top of each note. Real notes have these words printed in raised intaglio print. Police could not confirm reports that the gang had moved into forging Spanish pesetas, less likely to be scrutinised than British notes. Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd. -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
