A MAN climbed up on the roof of his own home when police executed a search warrant there.

Officers found a total of 85 fake £20 notes hidden behind an electric fire of the dormer bungalow in Hazel Grove in Mold, a court was told yesterday.

But Edward Hughes, 51, climbed up onto the roof and refused to come down.

Later arrested, he claimed the notes had been “planted” at his home by a man who, he alleged, had been flooding the area with counterfeit notes.

Hughes, also known as Edward Squires, denies having custody or control of the 85 counterfeit notes in February of last year.

Prosecuting barrister Simon Rogers told the jury at Mold Crown Court that Hughes’ finger prints had been found on the notes, which had been confirmed to be counterfeit by The Bank of England.

The jury heard how police forced open the house door and searched the property and an officer saw a card sticking out from the electric fire.

He could not pull so he got a screwdriver and pulled off the back – and the notes were in a plastic bag, inside a plastic container.

Meanwhile Hughes had climbed up onto the roof.

Initially he refused to come down.

But he later came down and was given a blanket because it was so cold.

Hughes refused to answer questions when being booked in to custody, it was claimed.

It later took “much diplomacy and cajoling” to get him into a cell, explained PC Andrew Pritchard.

He gave a no comment interview but in a prepared statement given to the police, Hughes claimed a man had been to his home to buy three mobile phones.

Hughes said he was given cash but when he felt them he thought there was something wrong with them and gave them back.

The telephone rang in the kitchen, Hughes said that he went to answer it, and when he had finished the call, the other man had left.

In a later interview he named the man who, he claimed had, with his girlfriend, been flooding the Mold and Buckley area with counterfeit cash at the time.

The jury was told that, effectively, Hughes was blaming that man for planting them at his home.

The trial before Mr Recorder Wyn Lloyd Jones is proceeding and is expected to last three days.