A trio of money launderers caught in the largest cash counterfeiting seizure in the UK are being ordered to pay back their profits.

In 2019, Phillip Brown, John Evans and Nick Winter were jailed following an investigation into a new fake £20 note identified by Bank of England, which caused the institution to take £1.9 million of currency out of circulation.

Officers followed a trail to a printing press in Kent House Lane, Beckenham, where large scale industrial equipment, used to print magazines and leaflets, was pumping out sheets of the counterfeit notes.

Inquiries discovered the press was owned by Winter and materials for their creation were ordered to the address.

A search warrant was carried out on May 4, 2019 and inside officers found Brown and another man surrounded by printing equipment and large piles of counterfeit £20 notes, later confirmed as having a face value of £5.25 million.

In the months that followed, further large amounts of counterfeit currency believed to have been printed by the group continued to be discovered with the Bank of England removing more than £1.9million of their notes from circulation to date.

Evans, 40, formerly of King Georges Walk in Esher, Surrey, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in January 2021 for his involvement.

The same day Brown, 56, previously of Ash Road, Longfield, was jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Winter, 61, formerly of Elmers End Road, Beckenham, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment the previous December.

On June 9, a judge at Woolwich Crown Court granted confiscation orders against Brown and Winter, requiring them to pay back what they have available in cash and other assets – in Brown’s case the amount is £201,761 while Winter must pay £4,000.

Evans had previously been ordered to pay £7,258 at an earlier hearing in November 2021.

Det Inspr David Godfrey said: “The offenders in this case printed their own money but their criminal actions have ended up costing them their freedom and now the money they had no right to in the first place.”