Jail for fake cash father and son

John and Craig Farrell pleaded guilty to producing counterfeit cash

A father and son from South Lanarkshire have been jailed for mass producing fake bank notes.

John Farrell, 51, was sentenced to five years and eight months for producing counterfeit notes at his business, EWM Solutions, in East Kilbride.

His 23-year-old son Craig Farrell was jailed for two years and nine months.

Farrell's other son Paul, 20, and employee Gordon Grainger, 20, who passed off fake cash, were each ordered to perform 300 hours community service.

The court heard Farrell started the counterfeiting operation in 2007 when his IT firm began to fail.

In order to finance his lifestyle - with included a £1m home, luxury cars and exotic travel - he sourced specialist paper and inks and forged hundreds of thousands of pounds of counterfeit money.

It is clear considerable research and application would have be needed to initiate this exercise Lord Turnbull

He also involved his Oxford graduate son Craig, who enhanced the colour of the fake notes on computer and made sure they were not blurred.

The scam was uncovered when some of the fake notes passed by Grainger were traced back to Farrell's company.

The businessman initially denied printing counterfeit currency and claimed he was undertaking a business venture in order to produce a banknote which could not be copied.

But after police found fake notes at his home in Thorntonhall near East Kilbride, he admitted counterfeiting due to cash flow problems with his business.

The court also heard how the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland had recovered £185,570 worth of the counterfeit notes which were in circulation.

Jailing Farrell senior, judge Lord Turnbull told him that he had used his intelligence to build up a successful business and an affluent lifestyle.

"You then chose to put your business skills to criminal use," he said.

"It is clear considerable research and application would have been needed to initiate this exercise."