A former soldier who sparked a nationwide alert into use of fake US Army identity passes which could be used to access American bases has admitted forgery and deception charges.

Dennis Price, who was arrested when a police officer spotted him at the wheel of a Ford Orion and knew he was banned from the roads, pleaded guilty to a total of 11 charges and asked for 45 more to be considered.

Harrogate magistrates sent him for sentence at York Crown Court and he is expected to appear before a judge in the week beginning October 21.

Price, 39, who holds dual British and American nationality and was said by prosecutor Simon Ostler to have committed similar offences in the United States, made no application for bail and was remanded in custody.

He was born in Harrogate and left for the States when he was 15 when his mother married an American who had been working at the top-secret spy base at Menwith Hill. He returned to Harrogate a year ago and had been living in a bedsit in Grange Avenue.

Price admitted four forgery chargers, involving an American forces identity card, $100 bills and Amex and Mastercard travellers' cheques. He also admitted obtaining £341.18 by deception from a bank in Tadcaster and three offences of attempted deception, involving a total of £1,250, at travel agents in Leicester and Manchester and a Post Office in Grantham.

Guilty pleas were also entered to driving while disqualified and without insurance and possession of a lock knife with a three-inch serrated blade.

Price, who had served in the American army, was said to have been working recently installing computer networks for a Harrogate-based agency and to have been a volunteer medic with the Red Cross at festivals around the country.

Mr Ostler said he had embarked on a professional fraud which appeared to have netted him £5,300 though the value in some of the charges was unknown.

The forged documents, found in two cardboard boxes in the boot of Price's car after his arrest - including American and Canadian army passes - had been done to a very high standard on sophisticated computer equipment.

''We are not looking at somebody with a black and white photocopier knocking off grainy black and white items. These are sufficiently professional to fool onlookers into believing they are genuine.''

Andrew Tinning for Price said he had only one conviction in Britain, for drink-driving which brought him his ban. Allegations of convictions in the US had not been substantiated by police who had had almost a fortnight to make enquiries.