A BBC documentary, Funny Money, to be shown on BBC ONE at 7.00 pm on Wednesday (15 June 2005) will show how BBC undercover filming helped to bring two members of an international counterfeit gang to justice.
Two years ago a BBC current affairs undercover team infiltrated a counterfeiting gang running a printing press in Manchester capable of producing a million pounds a day in phoney British and American currency - and involved in a crime that was said by the National Crime Squad to be so sophisticated that it could have seriously damaged entire national economies.
When the forgers were arrested they were in the final stages of perfecting a high quality £20 note which they believed would fool even the banks.
No-one knows just how much of the counterfeit cash is currently in circulation.
This special investigation includes secretly shot footage of the forgers at work and interviews with law enforcement officers, both here and in America, to reveal for the first time the extraordinary inside story of Britain's most audacious funny money operation and how those behind it were finally brought to justice.
Seven people involved in this large-scale counterfeit operation were due to be sentenced today (Monday 13 June) at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester. In total, at the end of today, five people were sentenced to a total of 21 years.
During the course of his sentencing remarks, the Judge said: "I find that at all time the senior management and employed journalists of the BBC acted in good faith and in the public interest in the making of the programme Licence to Print.
"Of course they had mixed motives, bringing serious criminals to justice and making compelling television, but you Harper and Whittacker were convicted entirely on their undercover filming and you Arnaouti substantially upon the BBC material.
"It is often the case that those as high up the criminal chain as you Harper (and Whittacker) have no admissible evidence against you and it is entirely due to the BBC that you are convicted and sentenced today."
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