A Nottingham taxi driver spotted fake cash and alerted police: how to check your notes

Last month in Nottingham, a taxi driver was handed money that felt wrong. Rather than argue at the roadside or let the fare walk away, he drove his customer to a police station. The man was later arrested on suspicion of several offences. Nottinghamshire Police said the driver knew the cash was counterfeit by its look and feel.

That instinct is the first line of defence, according to the Bank of England. Modern British notes are printed on a polymer substrate that is very hard to produce, and so very hard to copy. If a note does not look and feel as you expect, the bank says, that alone is a clear sign it is not genuine.

Rhys Phillips, the Bank's chief cashier, puts the scale of the problem in perspective. Counterfeits, he says, are very rare, a tiny fraction of 1% of the notes in circulation. In 2025, about 200,000 fake notes were found, with a notional face value of £3.97m. That figure is notional because the notes are worthless and cannot legally be spent. Over the same year there were 4.729 billion genuine notes in circulation, worth £85.872bn.

The numbers are also far lower than in the paper era. In 2012, 747,000 counterfeit notes were discovered, with a notional face value of £13.73m. The switch to polymer has made fakes easier to spot and, evidently, less common, though some still slip through.

Phillips points to two features worth checking. The first is the hologram, on the side of the note that carries the monarch's head, near the bottom. As you tilt the note from side to side, the hologram flips between the denomination, whether Five, Ten, Twenty or Fifty, and the word Pounds. The second is the see-through window, which sits above the hologram. On the front, the detailed foil should look gold; on the back it should look silver. If those features look right, Phillips says, you can be fairly confident the note is authentic.

The fakes themselves vary. Phillips says that in the past, some counterfeits came from large, organised and sophisticated groups. Some are crude, just flat printed ink on polymer. Others try to imitate the more advanced security features, though he says every counterfeit the Bank knows of can be detected using its techniques. Many are now coming from overseas, and the way they are distributed has shifted: the Bank is aware they are often sold on social media or through online platforms.

If you have doubts about a note offered to you, Phillips says, reject it. If you have already accepted one, do not try to spend it. Knowingly passing on a counterfeit is illegal, and doing so risks prosecution. Instead, contact your local police force, which may want the note as evidence. If police decline, you can send it to the Bank of England, where staff will analyse it and use it in the wider fight against counterfeiting. A note that turns out to be genuine will be reimbursed. A counterfeit cannot be, because it has no value.

Phillips says the Nottingham driver did the right thing by alerting police. He adds a caution, though: he would not suggest anyone put their personal safety at risk. The practical advice is to check the hologram and window, and hand doubtful notes to the authorities rather than confront anyone yourself.