£1 coin fraudster from Bridgnorth must pay back £90,000
A former businessman who was jailed for leading a conspiracy to make counterfeit money has been ordered by a judge to pay up more than £90,000 for his criminal activities.
Gary Hart, 56, from Six Ashes, near Bridgnorth, was sentenced to seven years behind bars in 2014 for producing "high quality" fakes that were difficult to distinguish from the real thing. He had plotted to make half a million fake £1 coins.
A Proceeds of Crime hearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday was told that Hart had assets of £201,354 and that just under half the amount could be realised from him.
Mr Alexander Wright, defending, told the court that Hart's wife had recently died and the sum was made up of his half share in the house and his pension.
Judge Jim Tindall ordered Hart to pay the £93,467.05 within three months. He also ordered the forfeiture of the machinery used in the counterfeit operation.
Hart's plans to increase production to 10,000 coins a week was foiled by officers at a time the operation had a potential yield of £538,000.
He had used a parking logistics company as a money laundering scam to explain the bags of coins he was taking to the bank. But police raiding his unit at Heathmill Enterprise Centre, in Wombourne, Staffordshire, unearthed a stash of blank discs ready to be printed.
His co-accused, Robert Graham Smith, of Bedford Street, Tipton, had admitted the same charge and was jailed for three years and four months.
The court was told at the time that his mother had been murdered and his son had committed suicide while he was in prison awaiting trial for the fake coin scam.
Hart, who was in court for the hearing, remains in prison. He had denied conspiring to make counterfeit cash but was found guilty by a jury. His previous convictions dated back to 1973 and included a three-year spell in prison for conspiracy to steal.
