Copying his cash (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Copying his cash

David Nurdin has been jailed for two years for using a photocopier to make £1,000 in counterfeit £20 notes.

The 21-year-old plas-terer was caught after trying to use two of the notes to buy drinks at the Casbah nightclub in Swindon town centre.

When he was told the police were being called he said prison didn't frighten him as he had been there before.

Alan Fuller, prose-cuting, told Swindon Crown Court how staff at the club spotted the funny money when the defendant tried to buy drinks.

When he was detained he tried to dump another fake note in a litter bin but was spotted.

Police searched his home and found more than £600 in homemade £20 notes.

Mr Fuller said that when Nurdin was questioned he admitted photocopying £1,000 worth of the money along with two other people who he named.

He also admitted trying to pass the fake money to buy drinks but denied that the remaining cash at the house was his.

Nurdin, of Camdale Parade, Gorse Hill, pleaded guilty to possessing, making and trying to pass off counterfeit currency.

The court was told that he had a string of previous convictions mainly for motoring offences but also for arson and burglary.

Claire Marlow, defending, said that since his arrest her client had been jailed for six months for other matters and would not be released until December.

She said he denied that the notes found at the house were his, though he accepted his part in making them.

"The only reason he got involved was the person he was staying with at the time," she said.

"He photocopied £1,000 in £20 notes. That is an unsophisticated way of committing the offence.

"He then handed them over to the friend who spray painted them silver and cut them up.

He thought 'He's getting away with it so I may as well'."

She said that he had a history of cannabis and cocaine.

Judge Charles Wade said: "This appears to have been a planned and pre-meditated offence and a deliberate enterprise to make money.

"The seriousness of the offences are so serious that only custody can be justified. If everyone printed their own money this country would head to financial ruin."

Jamie Hill