A HUSBAND and wife from Flintshire have appeared in court after raids where more than £600,000 in suspected fake currency was seized.

Ian Cole, 56, and Ursula Cole, 48, both of Golftyn Lane, Northop, are charged with conspiring to pass on counterfeit currency.

Three Yorkshire men are charged with the same offence.

The charges followed an operation carried out by West Yorkshire Police.

They stopped a Range Rover on the M62 on Wednesday evening before executing a search warrant at a farm in Golftyn Lane.

At the farm in Flintshire, it is alleged £350,000 worth of counterfeit notes, along with equipment which could be used in the production of fake currency, were found.

The prosecution alleges £250,000 in counterfeit notes was seized in the motorway swoop.

Charged along with the Flintshire pair were John Hartley, 60, of Cheltenham Road, Bradford; Lee Mitchell, 38, of Swinnow Gardens, Bramley, Leeds; and Christopher Brooke, 28, of Greenside, Pudsey, Leeds.

All five defendants appeared at Leeds Magistrates’ Court yesterday and all were remanded in custody to appear before Leeds Crown Court on Friday, with the exception of Ursula Cole, who was bailed to her home address.