TWO men who tried to illegally print and distribute more than £2million in counterfeit cash have been sentenced thanks to an investigation carried out by the Essex Police Proactive Money Laundering Team as part of the Serious Crime Directorate.

Anthony Grimes and Paul Jones were suspected of producing £20 notes from a rented industrial workshop on Cranfield Park Road, Wickford, and were known and evidenced to be moving between their addresses and the site.

Officers executed a warrant at that workshop on 9 April 2024, and inside the unit they found a professional large-scale criminal printing press including several large printing machines adapted to replicate and print counterfeit Bank of England polymer £20 notes.

The foil printing press discovered in Wickford

Multiple workbenches were set up creating a production line to print the notes, create the translucent windows featuring the cameo of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, apply foil elements, and a large guillotine to cut the notes to size. There was also a homemade drying unit with conveyor belt to finish the notes.

This was all found alongside office printing equipment and computers, including a digital scanner with genuine £20 notes on top.

Shelves of dyes and additional materials to create the counterfeit money were also found inside, as well as post addressed to Grimes.

Counterfeit notes evidentially recovered by the Bank Of England suspected to have been produced by Grimes and Jones from this workshop totalled just under £600,000 (30,000 individual counterfeit notes). It is estimated that the pair had the capacity and equipment to produce £2.7m pounds worth of counterfeit currency during their operation had it not been dismantled.

Grimes and Jones were arrested at their addresses on the same day of the warrant, and both were later charged with conspiring to make counterfeit of a currency note with intent.

Grimes, 64, of Homemead, Galleywood and 50 year-old Jones, of Elmington Estate, Camberwell, London, denied the charges and a trial was due to begin September 2025 at Basildon Crown Court.

However, following a change of plea at that hearing and trial of the facts in February 2026, Grimes was sentenced to five years and seven months in prison and Jones was sentenced to four years and five months at the same court on 5 May 2026.

Paul Jones

Anthony Grimes

'Not a victimless crime'

Detective Constable Grant Hawkins of SECU, the officer in this case, said: "This was a large team and force effort securing both convictions. Many specialist units helped bring the case together. Once these counterfeit notes are in circulation, they can be detected by banks and businesses, and whoever is left trying to pay for goods or services will be the ones impacted and at a loss.

"These crimes are not victimless. Grimes and Jones would be benefitting at the expense of anyone who tried to pay with their forgeries.

"Now they can reflect on the cost of their offending from prison.

"Having the expertise of the National Crime Agency Counterfeit Currency Unit and the Bank of England experts from the Counterfeit Threat Assessment teams in this investigation is invaluable. We work closely with both the National Crime Agency and the Bank of England specialist teams to disrupt and prevent hard-working members of the public from this type of crime all year-round."

A guillotine for cutting sheets of notes

A scanner with notes in workshop

The homemade drying unit found in the workshop

'Professional counterfeiters'

The machinery and printing presses from the workshop was assessed by Neil Harris MBE, the Head of Unit at the National Counterfeit Currency Unit (UKNCO), based within the National Crime Agency.

Mr Harris said this conviction demonstrated the successful partnership working between the police and the specialist unit at the NCA.

He said: "Had it not been for the successful warrant executed by Essex Police in April 2024 this criminal enterprise would have printed approx. £2.7m face value in counterfeit Bank of England £20 notes.

"We identified this criminal group had previously printed counterfeit £20 notes which were recovered from circulation. The distribution of these notes affected numerous police areas across the UK.

"The notes that had previously been printed and supplied to others who passed them has caused financial losses and harm to businesses and members of the public that took the counterfeit notes in payment. Essex Police's intervention in April 2024 prevented economic harm to the UK economy.

"Both the defendants in this case were repeat offenders and can be regarded as professional counterfeiters."