Family 'ran fake £1 coin factory'

by Babel-Fish | December 4, 2009 at 03:00 pm

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I have always thought that coin forgery was not worth while doing, but evidently not and at a guess others are making their own money. Coins are in fact easier to forge than paper money. I expect it was the weight of the coins that first gave the game away.

Thousands of pounds worth of fake £1 coins were uncovered at a counterfeiting factory during a raid on a farm in Kent, a court has heard.

The coin-making paraphernalia was found hidden in a concealed room behind wooden panelling at Tonge Corner Farm, Tonge, near Sittingbourne on 13 May.

Michael Silk, 70, of Iwade, Kent and Paul Bart, 65, of Boreham Wood, Hertfordshire deny making fake coins.

Mr Silk's son Stephen, 49, of Borden, Kent, has pleaded guilty to the charge.

Maidstone Crown Court was told on Friday that brothers-in-law Michael Silk and Mr Bart also deny having counterfeiting materials, including a hydraulic machine press, and possessing counterfeit coins with a view to distributing them as genuine.