Angus Weaver, 52, teamed up with 83-year-old Dennis Hancox to produce bogus £20 notes and euros, complete with embossed strips and holograms

Angus Weaver, 52, teamed up with 83-year-old Dennis Hancox to produce bogus £20 notes and euros, complete with embossed strips and holograms, in an operation that began in Glasgow.Weaver's gang had circulated millions in fake euros with identical serial numbers before surveillance officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency swooped on the 10 men in October 2007, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.The operation had begun in Glasgow a year earlier, using equipment at Print Link, in St George's Road, Kelvingrove.
The men worked with Thomas McAnea, 58, a Glaswegian printer and veteran forger known as "Hologram Tam", who was jailed in 2007.Sophisticated software was used to scan images of the notes, remove the silver strip and hologram, and emboss them back onto fake notes.After a meeting at Claridge's Hotel in London, production was moved from Scotland to the English capital. A £12,500 machine was installed in Hancox's house in Chiswick, where the forged notes could be foiled and finished.Officers watched as the gang regularly met up in the South Acton Working Men's Club.
Yesterday Judge William Kennedy jailed Weaver, of Bethnal Green, for 52 months. He had admitted three counterfeiting charges.
The judge said the sentence would have been more had he not pleaded guilty.At an earlier hearing, Hancox was given a nine-month jail term, suspended for a year, and five other men were sentenced for their parts in the operation.James Watson, 58, of Hoddam Avenue, Castlemilk, Glasgow, will be sentenced on Friday. He has admitted two counterfeiting charges.