Taxi Driver Online

2 Apr 2008

Man had forged cash in his car

A judge has warned a Bradford private hire driver that he is going to jail
for passing forged £20 notes.

Roger Newton, 58, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court of
possessing counterfeit currency and having custody or control of it with intent.

He was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

After the jury's verdicts, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Stephen Gullick,
told Newton he would be sent to prison for up to 12 months.

He adjourned sentencing until Wednesday, April 23, for a probation report.

Judge Gullick told Newton: "Be under no illusions, you will go to prison.
The report will just address how long the sentence will be."

The judge told the jury, after its unanimous guilty verdicts, that passing
counterfeit currency was "an extremely serious offence".

He said Newton, of Laburnum Drive, Baildon, was set to go to jail for
between nine and 12 months.

The judge ordered the counterfeit notes be destroyed.

Prosecutor Chris Smith told the court during the two-day trial that Newton
used counterfeit £20 notes to buy handbags at Kilnsey Show, in the
Yorkshire Dales, last August.

Mr Smith said Newton bought the gold and red bags from a stall run by
magistrate Nancy Norton.

Mrs Norton realised the two notes had the same serial number and were
forgeries. She alerted PC Andy Bell who arrested Newton as he queued at
a hot dog stall.

Newton was found to have three other counterfeit notes in his wallet and
17 more in an envelope hidden beneath the rubber mat in the driver's
footwell of his Skoda minicab.

Newton accepted using the notes to buy the handbags but denied knowing
they were forgeries. He told the court he was given them by four Eastern
European men who approached him outside a car boot sale in Bingley two
days earlier and paid him £500 for two gold rings and a chain.

Source: Bradford Telegraph Argus
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