Fears as fake notes flood Bognor Regis

Hundreds of pounds of the dud currency a week are being handed into the police from town centre shops.

One man is being investigated after having 140 of the forged notes in Butlins.

PC Mark Linberry, of the Bognor town centre neighbourhood specialist policing team, said: "We would like anyone who gets any of these notes to contact us through the Sussex Police website under the Bognor south section of the local policing page.

"We can check the CCTV in the shops where notes were handed in to see if it is one person going round the shops spending them or different people handing the occasional note in.

"Someone has printed a lot of these notes up and they are being distributed around. We have given out leaflets about the notes to the town centre shops as a crime prevention measure.

"Whoever ends up with one of the notes is 20 out of pocket in their change and it could be a pensioner."

The forgeries began to appear around Bognor three weeks ago. The Observer highlighted one had been spent in the St Wilfrid's Hospice charity shop in the Queensway.

"We are getting at least two or three of the notes a day being handed in by smaller shops around the town," explained PC Linberry. "We are picking up 200-300 in the notes from those shops each week.

"The total amount has to be a lot more because the bigger shops tend to deal with them internally."

The man with the 140 worth inside Butlins is the largest haul of the dodgy currency found on one individual. He is being investigated by police to see if he was simply unlucky in being duped into having so much worthless cash or is involved in the scam.

The fake 20 notes are occurring around Sussex.

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