Sharp rise in incidence of counterfeit notes

ALMOST 9,000 counterfeit euro notes - worth approximately €430,000 - were taken out of the Irish economy in the first six months of this year.

The figure marks a substantial rise on 2002, when 7,241 counterfeit notes, worth €277,000, were detected for the entire year.

According to statistics published by the EU police agency, Europol, 8,896 counterfeit notes were recovered by the Irish Central Bank or seized by Gardaí in the first half of 2004.

The head of Europol’s counterfeiting unit, Maurizo Varanese, said they could not reveal the monetary value of the notes detected.

However, Europol figures show that across the union €50 notes were the most common counterfeit denomination, accounting for 44% of all fake notes, followed by €20 notes (28%) and €100 notes (21%).

This breakdown would indicate the Irish counterfeits would be worth around €430,000.

The number of counterfeits in Ireland account for 1.5% of all such notes detected in the EU.

Some 307,000 notes were recovered from circulation by all the national central banks and a further 287,000 were seized by law enforcement agencies - a total of 594,000 notes.

Mr Varanese declined to reveal how much these notes were worth, saying the general public might be scared if they knew.

But applying the same breakdown of the denomination of notes seized, this would indicate that some €40 million of fake notes were confiscated in the first half of 2004.

“The main problem comes from eastern Europe and some Baltic countries. Production of euro bank notes is significant there,” said Mr Varanese.

“The bank notes are produced in those countries and brought here to Europe, all across the EU.”

He said that with the expanded 25-member state EU, and internal freedom of movement, it was very difficult to stop people bringing fake notes across the EU.

“The only thing we can do is establish better cooperation with the local law enforcement agencies.”

He said Europol, together with local police forces and international agencies, dismantled ten major high-tech print shops and two clandestine mints in the first half of 2004.

Mr Varanese said the highly profitable trade was controlled by well-established criminal groups in Eastern Europe who had very close links with local organised crime gangs in the EU.

He said that in Ireland there were some cases where paramilitary organisations were involved in the trade.

He pointed out that gangs involved in counterfeiting currency were also involved in other counterfeiting, including credit cards, documentation, clothing and goods.

Mr Varanese said that with computer technology the ability to design fairly good counterfeits was within the grasp of far more people.

He said the quality of notes, particularly €100 and €200 notes, had increased considerably.

A spokeswoman for the Central Bank said that counterfeiting should be viewed in an EU-wide context, while a spokesman for the European Central bank said the number of counterfeit notes should be seen in the context of the nine billion genuine notes in circulation.