Page 22 - BOSS Today Issue 16

Fraud

At the front

line of frAud

Bomb threats and fake money are just two of the cases that a project set up by
police and office product suppliers has helped in recent months

man whose two home- making a fake identity card for about community tensions jailed him for two and a half
A made bombs led to 600 MI6. rising as a result that they held years.
people having to be evacuated They passed his details onto a community meeting to which
in Cheltenham is just one of the Gloucestershire Police, and 200 people came along. Free to join
examples of criminal activity when police raided two garages Counsell, who a judge at The Counsell case is just one of
that has been brought to light in Counsell rented in Cheltenham Gloucester Crown Court later many that has been uncovered
the past few months by Project they found two IEDs made with conceded was depressed by Project Genesius, which
Genesius, the partnership TATP, the same explosive used following the break-up of his is free for all office supplies
between the police and the in the London tube bombings. marriage and the collapse of companies to join.
printing and office supplies Searches of his computer later his business, claimed he had The initiative helps to protect
industries that aims to tackle found that Counsell had been only developed the bombs as a the reputation of the industry
identity fraud in the UK. visiting websites telling you how means of deterring burglars, and and of individual retailers.
Martin Counsell was first to make bombs. said he only wanted to pretend In fact, when a man was
brought to the attention of the Some 600 people from the to be an MI6 worker because apprehended in Harrods in
Metropolitan Police, which runs surrounding area, including he thought he would get London last December wearing
Project Genesius, by another the residents of a nearby care psychiatric treatment quicker as a fake sales assistant badge,
Project Genesius member whom home, had to be evacuated, a result. police contacted the company
Counsell had approached about and police were so concerned But Judge Jamie Tabor still which had made the badge, and

22 BOSS TODAY | March/April 2013

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