Making Money

Early in May 1983, the Provisional IRA started to print their own money. Alan murdoch reports.
In the bustling fruit market in Dublin's Moore Street, stall-holders have lately developed an instinctive reflex action - raising each £10 note. received to the light before accepting it and handing over change. Neighhbouring shops have taken to sticking specimen counterfeits to their cash registers to help staff tell them from the real thing. Today, two years after the first of the forgeries appeared, Fraud Squad officers say a steady stream are still turning up each week.

Detectives first learned that a major 'Counterfeiting campaign was under way quite by chance. At the beginning of April 1983 Special Branch detecctives decided to search homes in the . Shannon area, suspecting arms and exxplosives were concealed there. Dawn raids on eight houses instead turned up an unexpected bounty - £24,000 in fake £10 notes.

The gods were again kind two weeks later. Gardai reportedly on surveillance . operations connected with heroin traffficking in the St Theresa's Gardens area decided to search a car. There were no drugs inside, but instead £10,000 in £10 notes. At first the cash was thought to be genuine and for use in paying for drugs. It was some hours before detectives realised this was not the real McCoy, but a very good likeness. Charges were laid against three men and a woman arressted in connection with the cash, but were not upheld.

"The Big Spend" started in the first week of May 1983. Gardai report that a glut of the fake notes hit shops and bars over one weekend. At the same time banks started spotting the notes in their branches, with the first recorrded as appearing around May 3. Much of the early action was concentrated in the area covered by detectives from the Kevin Street station in the city.

When crisp and new the notes have a fair plausibility. Their good points are a reasonable print definition on the head of Jonathan Swift and on the Gaelic lettering. Their weaknesses are that they are pinker than the origiinal, notably on the back. The ink on the Swift head and particularly the shoulders is distinctly darker and rougher than the real note, while the feathered coat of arms is fainter. A quite glaring difference appears on the back - where the genuine note has ships with rigging in the Liffey. The counterfeiters clearly lacked photoographic facilities to pick this fine detail up, leaving the ships simply as hulls with masts.

The initial impression means that at first in busy bars and stores few would look for the metal strip, which . does not appear in the fake. In the genuine article it runs from top to bottom just to the left of the Swift autograph, being visible only when held up to the light. Also· the tellltale Lady Lavery watermark is not present, though a surface imitation appears in a cream-coloured ink which tends to wear off in time. On. the real note the watermark is immpressed into the paper.

The metal strip is the most diffiicult feature for any forger to cope with - it has to be incorporated into the paper itself during manufacture. Many of the Provisionals' notes have been folded at this point to try and create the impression of a line, but with little success. The serial numbers - often a weak point in forgeries ˆare in this instance quite similar. Only seven different numbers have so far been detected - Gardai believe all the notes are part of a single print run.

Such features have made it possible for counterfeits with a face value of several thousand pounds to be passed in a short space of time, especially in the busier city environment. In country areas it is a more risky business - early on in the operation two men were caught after 150 of the fakes were passed in Enniscorthy , County Wexxford on May 7. One of them, 25 yearrold Daithi Kavanagh, received a senntence of three years penal servitude, and another, 31 year-old Patrick Codd, was given a suspended sentence of seven years. Six others were arrested in the same week in various parts of County Dublin in connection with the counterfeits.

More convictions followed further discoveries of large batches of the forgeries. An unemployed Finglas man' received a five year sentence in Novemmber 1983 after Gardai found notes with a face value of £9,000. Later the same month an unemployed barman was sentenced to five years jail after telling the court that "a man had asked him to do a favour for the army" - holding a consignment of the notes for safe keeping. The prosecution alleged the notes were part of "an IRA plot to flood Dublin with forrgeries." From May 1983 onwards Gardai in various parts of the country issued repeated warnings about forged notes appearing as far apart as Mayo, Monaghan, Cork and Waterford, as well as the capital.

While a steady flow of notes was surfacing on a regular basis plans to put much more into circulation may have been aborted. The discovery of notes with a face value of £75,000 in searches in the Dromiskin-Dundalk area - in late July last year following the shooting of Garda Frank Hand during the Drumree Post Office raid - pointed to the existence, of stockkpiles of notes never used. Nevertheless the notes are still being offered for sale in North Dublin bars at 40% of the face value.

Not surprisingly, IRA Army Counncil members have been reticent about discussing details of the forgery scheme, but Republican sources indicate that the initial print-run was as high as 100,000 notes with a "value" of £ 1 .ooo ,000. It is understood that the intention was to raise funds for a single specific operation - probably the purchase of arms. The work was done by a SIngle printing house, making both the plates for the printing and producing the sheets of notes. Signifiicantly "distribution" went beyond acctive IRA members, involving a wider network of supporters. Precisely where the printing was dohe remains a closelyyguarded secret, though. detectives innvolved in the investigation received indications that it may have been done abroad - in the British MIdlands, possibly Birmingham.

Those passing the notes benefitted from a panic reaction among ordinaty shoppers receiving the notes as change. Discovering the note is a forgery their immediate reaction (given that banks do not refund the value of a forgery handed in to them) is to get rid of it as fast as possible by spending it again. Those disposing of fake notes unwittingly received recently have inncluded respectable central Dublin bats, company directors, a Dublin magazine (not Magill) and at least one massage parlour. Tellers in banks ate well accquainted with the distinguishing feaatures of forgeries, but even here the detectioh rate has been uneven.

A senior detective Investigating the forgeries during 1983 and 1984 sums it up: "The crucial test of a counterrfeit is - will it pass iri a pile of genuine notes. 10.1 can't then it's no good."

Despite its ostensible attractions as a means of raising funds, the Proviisionals Can hardly regard their foray as an unqualified success. in large seizures some £i30,OOO of the notes have been confiscated by Gardai withhout ever going into circulation. Some sixteen individuals have so far either faced charges or been convicted since the operation began - a high attrition rate by any standards. Further charges , may be on the Way.

Far from being an instant means to generate funds, the £10 notes saga has . highlighted the massive difficulties facing would-be forgers.

"Counterfeiting has an image of being an easy crime - it's not," says a detective on the case. "It's a very unwieldy business trying to get rid of the notes." This often ends in their being sold on at a discount. Converting them into goods for resale immediately puts the individuals involved, at coriisiderable risk of detection. Even When a note is accepted by a bank, once detected in the clearing system and passed to bank security specialists; I",. it does not lie dormant in a filing cabinet, but is sent to Garda experts for fingerprint analysis.

Adding to Fraud Squad problems, a variety Of British currency forgeries have been circulating in Ireland since late 1982. In December 1982 Gardai in border areas were alerted to the activities of a gang of three or four men from England passing fakes in shops and bars there. Over Easter last year British police recovered forged sterling £50 notes of exceptionally high quality with a total face value of £200,000, but not until many had gone into circulation all over Britain and in several European countries including Ireland.

Plausible but less exact forgeries of sterling £20 'notes have also apppeared here, featuring an impressive imitation metal strip - a grey line on the reverse showing through faintly on the front when held to the light. Gardai felt it necessary to issue a warning about these after a .concenntrated spending "blitz" of these notes in Waterford City on Sunday January 16. In North Dublin bars some of these have been sam on at around £8 each, according to 10caI Gardai.

At present there seems to have been no connection -. between the origins of the Irish forgeries and the sources of sterling fakes, though one line Of inquiry pursued in Britain regarding ho sterling fakes concerned forgery activites in the Midlands, where Gardai suspect Provisional IRA £ 1 ° notes may also have come from. Close comparison of these forgeries however would suggest that different materials and printing equiprnerlt were used in each case. The British £20 fakes show higher definition in the printing of the designs, artd neater "registration" where different colours have been printed after separation. There are also differences in the paper. The Irish £10 note has a tendency to become flimsy after sortie use, while; the British note is on a harder paper.

A perhaps more intriguing forensic parallel exists between the fake Irish £10 and the fake £5 notes seized by Gardai in 1983. A massive cache ètheir total face value came to £ 1 .7m - was discovered in uncut sheets in a warehouse in East Green Street, Ringserid Dublin in the early hours of N ovem ber 16 that year. In both cases the same process was used to create the imitation watermark - the printting of an image in a cream coloured ink. Differences were apparent between the two notes in 0 the texture of the paper and in the use of a printed line on the £5, substituting for the metal strip.

The £5 notes were printed on maachines (an Adast Dominant 712 and an old Thompson Platim) which had been owned by the Workers' Party publishing company Repsol. This led to a search of the Party's headquarrters in Gardiner Place, Dublin, and samples of printed documents from there were taken away by detectives for forensic examination.

Subsequently a Workers' Party member from Cork was sought in connnection with the forgeries, though he has not been traced since and no charges have been laid. Gardai would not confirm reports that he was sought because of fingerprint evidence linking him to the machines and an ink bottle. The man is reported to have gone to England and since then been living on the Continent, possibly in East Gerrmany. In his late twenties, he was forrmerly employed as a printer by Repsol.

The machines in question changed hands three times in the year prior to the discovery of the notes. Workers' Party sources stated that receipts from their sale were shown to detectives.

According to the Workers' Party sources the case "caused uproar" in the organisation. Members in branches all over the country who joined in the last four to five years who were strongly committed to the Party's electoral politics, demanded explanaations of what was suggested by the newspaper reports following the seizure of the notes.

In some quarters in the party there was a feeling that they had been "set up" in some way - members pointed to the fact that the seizure with all its attendant publicity came just one week before the Dublin Central byyelection on November 23. (The Worrkers' Party candidate Michael White came third, polling 6,284 votes after eliminations, ahead of Labour and Sinn Fein.) There were also angry references to dirty tricks tactics alleegedly used in the wake of the split with theProvisionals.

Prior to the Ringsend raid the wareehouse was under surveillance for some time. Gardai first thought - as a result of tip-offs -- that the notes would be put in circulation in early August 1983, and issued a warning, printed in newspapers on August 6. It appears the forgers reacted quickly to this and held back. The raid eventually went ahead with an impressive array of Garda strength on hand - besides the Fraud Squad, detectives from local stations, from the Serious Crime Squad and from the Crime Task Force were present, some armed. On the night no one was found on the premises, and none of the notes seem to have gone into circulation.

The Workers' Party issued a blunt denial that it was behind the forgeries:

"The Party was not in any way involved in any attempt to produce counterfeit banknotes, nor would we tolerate such activities by any of our members." Regarding the alleged suspect, the official statement said simply: "A Garda source has apparently alleged . .. that they are seeking to interview an unnamed 'member of the Workers' Party', but we have been given no innformation on this matter."

The man sought by Gardai had earlier made an appearance on the Late Late Show, in March 1983. following a performance by the Wolfe Tones he made a forceful speech from the audience, criticising the musicians for their alleged support for the Pro visionals and went on to denounce "the criminal activities of the IRA."

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The FOrgotton Forgers

The long prison terms for posso session of forged currency dess. cribed above may seem stern punishment. Early in the last century penalties were even stiffer - beetween 1797 and 1829 some 618 people were sentenced to death in Britain and Ireland for possession of counterfeits, as a result of a draconian law passed in 1697. At the time ignorance that a note was forged was deemed to be no defence - any innocent person unwittingly receiving such a note faced public hanging. Such events were commonnplace particularly in the early l820s .. Public horror at the executions hwith Bank of England directors being pursued by angry crowdsforced the abolition of the death penalty for the offence in 1832. Even then the substitute punishhment was transportation for life.

Ironically, shortly before these unfortunates were being despatched to the gallows, the Bank of England was itself engaging in major forgery operations. During the French Revolution the bank produced subbstantial quantities of French assign at notes in an effort to destabilise the new regime. As its main concern since has been the opposite - blockking counterfeiting at home the bank has not given wide publicity to its role then.

Perhaps the best known currency forgery episode this century was the Second World War plan known as "Operation Bernhard". In an effort to create chaos within the British economy, the Germans asssembled a crack team of prisoners including master printers and several forgery experts to produce some £130m in Bank of England £5 notes. The plan - recently dramaatised in the BBC series "Private Schulz" - was that German agents in Britain would in various ways put the cash into circulation to create a sudden inflationary crisis.

In the event, while the notes were printed to an exceptionally high quality the plan to distribute them never got off the ground. For the forgers a worse fate was in store.

After getting the prisoners to produce master plates for printing of French francs and US dollars, their Nazi masters sent them to Ebsenec extermination camp. After the war a large batch of the British £5 counterfeits were discovered in Austria. They were so well produced it was impossible to distinguish them from the genuine notes.