A forger who set up a multi-million pound factory producing counterfeit cash has been jailed for six years.

Peter Blackbourn, who previously lived in a bungalow in Noel Rise, Burgess Hill, ran his counterfeiting operation from a lock-up in Canning Town, London.

It was discovered by officers from the Crawley branch of the National Crime Squad following a full-scale investigation.

When they burst into the industrial unit, they caught Blackbourn using a magnifying glass to examine items rolling off a printing press.

In another room, they found counterfeiting machinery worth £25,000, including machines for creating printing plates and a guillotine to chop up the finished A3 sheets.

There was also a machine for adding the metallic foil on to the paper. Counterfeit notes were found in various stages of completion.

Stacked in a 3ft pile were reams of A3 paper which contained partly and fully completed counterfeit £20 notes, some with watermarks and metallic strips.

Although there were only 12 complete notes, the remainder were at advanced stages.

The face value of the sheets was £921,000 but police also found a large quantity of unopened packs of A3 paper.

They calculated the potential value of the counterfeit £20 notes was £7,440,000.

Blackbourn, 50, and accomplice Robert Deanus, 63, from Islington, London, were sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court, London, yesterday.

Both men were given two six-year sentences, to run concurrently, after pleading guilty to charges of making and having counterfeit currency.

Before his arrest, Blackbourn, a father of two young children, lived alone in Burgess Hill.

He ran his own computer firm and once worked as a Ministry of Defence consultant.