A man was stopped from getting on a ferry after buying a £250 pair of trainers.
A man in a shopping centre in Manchester bought items worth £250 and further attempted to buy a £250 pair of trainers with money suspected to be counterfeit. Security staff at the shopping centre used CCTV to follow the man's movements and locate his car registration plate on Monday, June 19.
On Sunday, July 2, the same car was spotted on camera as it went into the Mersey Tunnel at around 5pm. The man paid cash for the toll.
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The car made a journey around Wirral before entering the shipping port at Birkenhead. Borders and port police were made aware that the vehicle was of interest to Greater Manchester Police and stopped it before it entered the ferry to Belfast, Northern Ireland.
During a search of the vehicle, officers recovered two large batches of cash, along with designer clothes and high value items. The items were seized along with the vehicle for forensic recovery.
Some of the high value items were believed to have been purchased from multiple different retail outlets around the North West and paid for in cash with receipts kept concealed in a blue drinks pack were seized. The receipts all show large transactions made in cash.
A 21-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of possessing counterfeit currency. He remains in police custody for questioning.
Detective Inspector James Coles of GMP’s Economic Crime Unit, said: "This is great proactive work from our officers who have managed to remove suspected counterfeit cash from our streets. I’d like to thank the security staff at the shopping centre for their quick response in obtaining the registration plate of the man’s vehicle, this allowed us to track its movements which ultimately led to their arrest.
“Using, distributing and creating fake bank notes is illegal and by seizing this cash, officers have been able to prevent it from being used to potentially fund further criminality within the community."
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