TWO men printed off hundreds of pounds of fake bank notes with an inkjet printer before being busted trying to spend one note at an Abingdon store, a court has heard.

Ricky Burton, 30, of Gurney Road, Portsmouth, and Scott Reed, 28, of Ashurst Road, Portsmouth, both deny one count of having in their possession counterfeit currency notes and one count of tendering the notes as genuine currency.

A jury of seven women and five men was sworn in as their trial, expected to last three days, began at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

Prosecutor Henry James told jurors that the alarm was first raised when Reed tried to tender a Scottish £20 note to buy a pregnancy kit at Savers in High Street, Abingdon, on the afternoon of March 29 last year.

He said: “The touch didn’t feel right, [the store manager] clearly felt that something was wrong. He firstly tried to rip it on the metal looking strip.

“The notes themselves were produced using an inkjet printer and when he ripped it it ripped. He then used an ultraviolet pen and it failed that test too.”

The manager refused to hand the note back and Reed left the store before later being spotted on city CCTV and cornered by police, Mr James said.

Reed was later stopped at Conduit Street, the court heard, together with Burton, and on searching the latter police found a set of car keys for a silver Renault Megane parked nearby.

On searching the vehicle a haul of counterfeit notes was seized, made up of 18 Scottish bank notes at £20 each, and totalling £360.

Mr James told jurors that the fake bank notes, which were taken by police, were each emblazoned with an identical serial number.

The trial continues.