Amarna statuette forgery sentences

The Scotsman

A PENSIONER who fooled the art world for years by selling fake antiques his son had "knocked up" in his garden shed avoided a jail sentence yesterday. Wheelchair-bound George Greenhalgh, 84 – dubbed the "artful codger" – was given a two-year suspended jail sentence at Bolton Crown Court. . . . Judge William Morris told the court that the prison service could not look after Greenhalgh because of his age and infirmity. . . .

Police calculated that George and Shaun Greenhalgh benefited through the sale of their work by £644,081.35 and Olive Greenhalgh by £430,392, the court was told.

Shaun Greenhalgh was jailed for four years and eight months last November.

Olive, 83, was given a 12-month jail term suspended for 12 months at the same hearing, after pleading guilty to the same offences.

Officers have now seized their assets and the court ordered £404,250.24 be confiscated from the family – most of it, £384,003.38, from Shaun's Halifax bank account.

The money will be shared out among various claimants who were defrauded.

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