Crook jailed for passing off counterfeit £50 notes from wad of £750 in Northampton town centre shops

A Northampton man has been jailed for a total ten months after being found guilty of passing fake bank notes in two town centre shops.

Gary Patrick Andrew McCarthy denied using two counterfeit £50s notes from a wad of £750 in counterfeit Irish currency in October 2019.

McCarthy, aged 25, denied all three offences at a hearing last May but was found guilty by Northampton magistrates last month — along with a further offence of having another counterfeit £50 note on December 29 last year.

He was jailed for four months for each of the 2019 offences, to run concurrently, and four months consecutive for the counterfeiting charge on December 29..

McCarthy, of Ashtree Way, Duston, also pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and with no insurance in Gambrel Road and having a fake registration plate on a Ford Mondeo on December 29 — for which he was sentenced to a further two months — and possession of cannabis.

Magistrates also handed down a fresh three-year driving ban

McCarthy was jailed for five weeks last February for going equipped for theft of a motor vehicle and handling stolen goods.