The Enforcer: Gang who threatened the economy

Oct 5 2008

MAJOR drug dealers were the SCDEA's main targets.

But more unusual crooks such as Hologram Tam also kept the crimefighters busy.

OPERATION FENDER was launched after suspicions that a team of forgers were producing top-quality banknotes.

In 2006, Metropolitan Police officers reported an unusually high number of fake Bank of Scotland s20 notes in London.

By the New Year, the notes were turning up across Britain.

It was claimed the gang could destabilise the UK economy if their enterprise was not tracked down.

I, and a number of agency staff, knew there were very few people who had the skill and equipment to produce these notes.

Tam McAnea and John McGregor were two of them. Back in 1988, both had been convicted in an earlier plot to flood Europe with fake notes.

They had also been suspected of forging Old Firm tickets but both were freed on appeal and had their convictions quashed on a technicality, ironically related to a misprint on a warrant.

Our intelligence showed the suspects were working out of St George's Road, Glasgow, under the name Print Link.

Weeks of surveillance showed known criminals coming and going.

When the shop was raided on January 28, 2007, McGregor had just started a print run of half a million pounds in Scottish notes. There was also evidence of forged identity cards and drivers' licences.

A large photograph of a judge adorned the wall of the print room.

Beneath the picture of Lord Cameron was scrawled: "Go on yersel big man".

The message was in praise of the judge who freed them on their appeal.

Although there was still the significant job of preparing the evidence for the court, we knew that Hologram Tam (so named because of his skill of attaching holograms to make fake notes look real) faced justice at last with his gang.

They received a total of 22 years.