Amarna statuette forger jailed for art con

BBC News

A 47-year-old man has been jailed for more than four years for what police said was "the most sustained and diverse" art forgery case ever.

Shaun Greenhalgh, from Bolton, passed off scores of faked artefacts and artworks as genuine.

His mother Olive, 83, was given a 12 month suspended sentence for her part in the con. His father, George, 84, will be sentenced at a later date.

All three admitted fraud and money laundering at Bolton Crown Court.

The court heard how a fake Egyptian statue was "knocked up in three weeks in a garden shed" by Shaun Greenhalgh, who cared for his parents at the home they shared in Bromley Cross.

Bolton Council paid thousands of pounds for the so-called Amarna Princess believing it was 3,300 years old - but three years later experts found it was counterfeit.

The statue was said to represent one of the daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, the mother of Tutankhamun.

Judge William Morris, sentencing Shaun Greenhalgh to four years and eight months in prison, said the three had conspired together to defraud the art world for 17 years.