A MAN charged with possessing 85 fake £20 notes denied they were anything to do with him.

Edward Hughes, 51, said he was on the roof of the dormer bungalow, where he was lodging, to move an aerial for the occupant of the adjoining next door house when police forced an entry.

In evidence, he named a person he said must have planted the notes behind the fireplace of the lounge of the house in Hazel Grove in Mold, where he was staying at the time in February last year

The notes were nothing to do with him and the first he knew of the police presence was when he looking over the apex of the roof and saw police cars, he said in answer to questions by defence barrister Robert Golinski.

Prosecuting barrister Simon Rogers claimed at Mold Crown Court Hughes’ finger prints were found on five of the notes.

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 it could so he got a screwdriver and pulled off the back – and the notes were in a plastic bag inside a plastic container.

Giving evidence in his own defence on the third day of the trial, Hughes said before Christmas he had advertised mobile phones for sale. He said a local man telephoned him, went to the house and wanted a discount if he bought three phones

Hughes said he was not happy to proceed with the transaction, they were interrupted by a phone call which he took in the kitchen, and when he returned the man was leaving the lounge.

“He just seemed to want to get out of the house,” Hughes explained.

He had not thought the notes were counterfeit, but feared they were stolen and wanted nothing to do with them.

Hughes said he presumed that man had planted the money in the house.

Cross-examined by Mr Rogers, he denied the police had found his stash of counterfeit notes.

Mr Rogers said Hughes blamed a local man and his girlfriend who had convictions for passing counterfeit money. But the truth was Hughes was supplying them with the notes, he said. Hughes said that was not true.

Mr Rogers also accused the defendant of trying to frustrate the police at the time of the search by going up on the roof and refusing to come down.

Hughes said he was an aerial technician and spent much of his life up on roofs.
The trial before Mr Recorder Wyn Lloyd Jones is proceeding.