Three men behind the largest seizure of fake cash ever in the UK that saw £12 million of counterfeit notes flooding Britain have been ordered to pay back around £200,000.
Phillip Brown, 56, John Evans, 40, and Nick Winter, 61, were jailed for over 21 years between them over the conspiracy to run a printing press out of an office in Beckenham, south east London.
It is believed the defendants made millions by selling the knock-off money to other criminals, with the Bank of England removing notes with a total face value of over £1.9 million from UK circulation.
In the police raid in 2019, it is thought cops made the largest face-value seizure of fake currency in UK history.
When he was arrested, Brown was found at one of the printer and told the officers "you have caught me red-handed".
A judge at Woolwich Crown Court on June 9, ordered the gang to repay more than £210,000.
Brown was told to pay back £201,761 and Winter must pay £4,000, while Evans had previously been ordered to cough up £7,258 at an earlier hearing in November 2021.
An investigation into the crew began when the Bank of England discovered a new counterfeit £20 note had entered general circulation.
The note appeared to have been produced using the type of specialist equipment that would normally be linked with a company printing large volumes of magazines or leaflets.
Investigators found parts and materials linked with making hooky cash on a commercial scale had been ordered and were linked to a printing press owned by Winter in Beckenham.
A dog walker found around £5mill worth of false banknotes dumped in a street in Belvedere, south east London, in October 2019.
Another £200,940 was found scattered along the railway line between Farningham and Longfield in Kent, three months later.
A raid of their business HQ in May 2019 saw cops catch Brown and another man surrounded by printing equipment and large piles of fake £20 notes, later confirmed as having a total face value of £5.25million.
Over the following months, more large amounts of counterfeit cash believed to have been printed by the gang continued to be discovered in circulation.
Evans, from Esher, Surrey, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Brown, from Longfield, Kent, was jailed for six-and-a-half years in January 2021.
Winter, of Elmers End Road, Beckenham, was sentenced to six years inside in December 2020.
Detective Inspector David Godfrey, of Kent Police, said: "The Proceeds of Crime Team work very hard to establish how much offenders have earned from their illegal activities and have available to pay back.
"Those who fail to pay within a set timeframe have their prison sentences increased.
"It is also important to note that we carry out regular reviews and can continue to seize any further cash and assets the offenders may come into in the future, until the total amount they benefited from is recovered.
"The offenders in this case printed their own money but their criminal actions have ended up costing them their freedom and now the money they had no right to in the first place."
