THREE men behind a plot to make more than £1million in counterfeit cash have been jailed for 12 years.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Mohammed Khan, 45, of Accrington, Michael Hartley, 55, of Blackburn, and Liverpool printer Francis Jenkins, 47, were being watched by police and were thwarted before any money went into circulation.

But a judge said had they been successful once, nobody knew where the operation might have ended.

After the case a police spokesman said they could have printed more than £1million if they had not been stopped.

Father-of-six Khan, of Burnley Road, Accrington, told officers he was an "innocent dupe" and claimed he was the "gofer" in the operation.

But he was seen in the car park at the KFC restaurant on Preston New Road, Samlesbury, apparently examining notes against the light. He was jailed for five years after being convicted by a jury of conspiring to make counterfeit currency notes.

Ex-convict Michael Hartley, of Snowdon Avenue, Blackburn, was jailed for four-and-a-half years and ordered to serve the 226-day unexpired portion of his previous sentence. He claimed he was involved with counterfeit Scottish bank notes with a face value of about £270,000 which were said to have been put in storage in Accrington. Hartley had been jailed last December for counterfeit offences after earlier absconding. Francis Jenkins, of Woodhall Road, Liverpool, who has 20 years' experience in the printing trade and who gave evidence for the prosecution, received two years. Both he and Hartley admitted the conspiracy allegation and Hartley also pleaded guilty to procuring a false passport and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Jenkins had a lock-up unit at the Queens Dock in Liverpool, where police found an "Aladdin's Cave," of printing equipment, a computer, false papers such as birth certificates and motoring documents and fake money cut into pieces.

Sentencing, Judge Raymond Bennett said Khan and Hartley, who should have learned his lesson, were both "up to their necks in it."

Heather Lloyd, prosecuting, told the court police became aware of what was going on until September last year.

In February or March 2001, Jenkins was put in touch with Hartley, then wanted on warrant from Preston Crown Court for counterfeiting offences, and agreed to help him with forged documentation.

Before this, last April Khan and another man visited a computer graphics company, ordered a printing block and later asked for a block which would replicate the Queen's head.

Khan bought a £500 hot foil press from another firm and later collected it with Hartley.

In September, Khan and Hartley were arrested at Charnock Richard Services and in the vehicle police found 82 counterfeit Bank of Scotland £20 notes and forged documents produced by Jenkins. Both men had innocent explanations for being in the car and charges were not brought against them.