A SERIAL forger serving a seven-year sentence for producing counterfeit bank notes is now to forfeit his house.

Proceeds from the sale of John Bennett’s County Durham home, where he carried out his lucrative “cottage industry”, will be confiscated as proceeds of crime.

Durham Crown Court heard that the house, in Institute Street, in the village of Oakenshaw, near Crook, is worth an estimated £45,000.

Should it sell for that value, it is expected to realise £31,507 after mortgage and sale expenses.

Steven Orange, the Durham- based Crown Prosecution Service lawyer who oversees many crime proceeds cases, said £885 in genuine notes, seized by police from the house, can also be confiscated as a “realisable asset”.

Mr Orange told the court that as recent monthly repayments have not been met, since Bennett has been in custody, his mortgage company has begun county court proceedings against him.

Recorder Howard Crowson agreed to order that the gross total of £32,392 should be classed as realisable assets and forfeited by Bennett. He has six months to pay the sum or risk a 15-month addition to his sentence, in default.

Should the house prove difficult to sell, solicitors for Bennett can apply to extend the six-month deadline.

Bennett, 52, was handed the prison sentence last October after admitting 14 charges relating to production of counterfeit bank notes.

The court was told he previously served four years for similar activity, in 2002, and continued to manufacture his high-quality forgeries at his home after twice being arrested and bailed during last year’s police inquiry.

By the time he was sentenced, in October, 3,500 of Bennett’s forged bank notes of different denominations, totalling £70,920, were recovered by police, having been passed in an area from the Scottish border to North Yorkshire.

Equipment for producing counterfeit notes, including screen printers, scanners, computers, ink and bonded paper, were seized each time police raided his home.