If you can't forge them, just wash them?

At the beginning of the year I wrote that BirminghamLive had reported on the case of a couple in their 50s who were laundering used stamps on a massive scale, as reported here.  These two were not just removing uncancelled stamps from paper using white spirit (a well-known trick), they chemically removed the postmarks.  They got their just deserts - 2 years inside.

Now the Metro has reported another instance from Birmingham in which Paul Harrison and his wife Samantha were convicted of fraud and money laundering after buying used stamps, removing them from paper, stick them onto backing paper, and sell them on Amazon and eBay.

Harrison was jailed for four years for adapting, supplying and possessing articles for fraud. He had admitted money laundering and another charge of supplying articles for fraud. His wife was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/19/couple-washed-700000-used-stamps-sell-new-massive-fraud-11931163/?ito=cbshare
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Harrison was jailed for four years for adapting, supplying and possessing articles for fraud. He admitted money-laundering.  His wide was convicted of money laundering and sentence to two years, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Police were called in when a large number of envelopes were rejected at Glasgow Mail Centre and traced back to Harrison.  It was stated that he had been involved in the sale of around 700,000 stamps, resulting in a loss to Royal Mail of £421,000.

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