14/10/2009 - Sales of fraudsters' friend blocked
A high-tech printer that costs £750 has been withdrawn from sale at some UK stores on the advice of police after it was discovered at several counterfeiting factories.
Officers in London have shut down at least 20 fraud factories over the past 18 months. They believe this one type of printer could have been used to create thousands of false identity documents.
Scotland Yard said the machine created particularly realistic EU driving licences and versions of the forthcoming national identity card after becoming a favourite with fraudsters.
Among the stores which stopped selling the item was PC World Business, the online business arm of the high street technology shop. PC World is owned by DSG International, which also controls Comet in the UK and trades as Pixmania.com in some other European countries.
Police have circulated details of 30,000 false identities created by criminals for cheating banks, credit card companies and other finance firms. The bogus identities can also be used to mislead immigration officials, set up false benefits claims or for borrowing money with no intention of repaying it.
Copyright © Press Association 2009
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