Print chiefs jailed for £1.2m fraud

The bosses of a West Midlands printing company – which specialised in producing marketing materials for local businesses – have been jailed for a total of 23 years after being found guilty of churning out £1.2m worth of fake banknotes.
Brothers Amrit and Prem Karra, and their brothers-in-law, Rajiv Kumar and Yash Mahey, were all convicted of conspiracy to produce counterfeit notes following a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
The trial heard how the four men used specialist paper, inks and foil to run off the near-perfect forgeries at a print-works in Hockley, Birmingham, and even worked through the night during Christmas 2011 to print fake £10 notes with a face value of at least £1.27m.
David Emanuel, defending Prem Karra, described the “one-off” printing of counterfeit notes as a very misguided attempt to save the business, and said his client was someone who had been highly regarded within the local business community.
Jailing both Amrit and Prem Karra for 7 years and Kumar and Yash Mahey for 4.5 years, Judge Richard Bond said: “People who commit offences of this type must realise that those who counterfeit currency must expect long sentences of imprisonment. In this case the amount of money produced and disseminated into general circulation was enormous. It is so serious that only lengthy custodial sentences can be justified.”
National Crime Agency regional head of investigations Richard Warner said: “These men ran a sophisticated operation that posed a significant threat to the UK economy at the time.
“By working closely with industry experts our officers stopped them causing more damage. Counterfeiting is not a victimless crime. It takes money out of the pockets of individuals and businesses.”

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