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A counterfeit currency crook who evaded capture for four years has been jailed after his DNA was found at the scene of a Bristol burglary.
James Ryan, alias Sam Quilligan, was one of four men stopped by police on the M5 back in October 2015.
They were all involved in handling counterfeit money and three of them – David Donovan, Frank Cleary, and Patrick Mullane, all of Winterbourne Caravan Site in Old Gloucester Road, Bristol – received suspended prison sentences in October 2016.
By that time Ryan, who the others alleged was the mastermind of the racket, had gone on the run.
He had been found to have £1,600 in fake bank notes on him at the time of his arrest.
A warrant for his arrest was issued but it was not until the theft of a caravan in Bristol last December that he was arrested, Gloucester Crown Court was told on Friday (February 21).
He was identified by a discarded cigarette butt found at the scene.
He pleaded guilty to having custody of counterfeit Bank of England currency on November 20, 2015.
He also admitted the theft of a £17,000 caravan in Bristol between January 12 and January 14 in 2017 and also failing to surrender to his bail conditions in April 2016.
The court was told Ryan had been identified from CCTV images trying to pass fake £20 notes to buy a phone voucher at the One Stop Shop in Church Street, Tewkesbury in 2015.
They also showed him tendering a £20 note in payment for fuel at an Avonmouth petrol station the following day.
When Ryan first appeared in court last month following his arrest, the prosecutor, Ian Fenny, said Ryan appeared from the records not to have any other previous convictions.
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However, thanks to an intervention from a a member of the press in court, it was soon established his police record in Ireland was peppered with convictions including burglary, theft and driving offences.
The judge, Timothy Rose, accordingly jailed Ryan for a total of two years and four months.
Angry Ryan then shouted a string of obscenities at the judge as he was being taken down to the cells.
