TO PASSERS-BY, it was an ordinary shopfront in an unremarkable part of Glasgow. Aside from a lucrative niche turning out menus for Asian takeaways, Print Link did little to draw attention to itself.

But now the premises have emerged as the base of one of the most sophisticated counterfeiting operations ever seen in Britain, producing fake banknotes that were found across the country. The operation was so big that the High Court heard the forgers had the ability to destabilise the British economy as part of a network linked with criminals across the UK.

The operation was described by police as “big as it comes”. They said the expertise exhibited was “very sophisticated”.

Fake Bank of Scotland £20 notes with a value in excess of £1.2 million and 50 notes with a total value of more than £400,000 were either put into circulation or were about to be distributed.

Police believe the criminals targeted events including football matches as a cover to launder cash. The gang developed a system which had the potential to produce £1 million in forgeries every two to three hours.