Man created fake driving licences and passport photos from Sheffield home

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Milos Koudelka, aged 56, of Uttley Drive, Darnall, Sheffield, was found with a computer, printer and laminator and numerous false documents after police raided his home.

Recorder David Gordon told Koudelka: “Officers came to your address in Sheffield and arrested you and they found a number of false documents including identification documents, passport photos and high quality paper in a cupboard under the TV.

"And in a cupboard under the hallway they found a computer, a printer and a laminator machine which you had been using to create false documents over a significant period of time.“From a memory stick the officers subsequently recovered 13 copies of false identity documents.”

Recorder Gordon added these false identification documents included false driving licences or identity cards to allow anybody in their possession to transact financial business, bank loans, benefit claims or to use them to obtain work.

Rebecca Jones, prosecuting, said the police also recovered a birth certificate in someone else’s name, three mobile phones and a kindle computer as well as the memory stick which included identity documents in different names.

She added the false documents included Czech Republic driving licences and identity cards which were of a standard to ensure they could be used to open bank accounts, make benefit and housing claims and for individuals to obtain work as European nationals in the UK.

She said this was an amateur production of documents that would not pass the trained eye of a Home Office operative but it was of a standard to ensure bank accounts could be opened, financial systems could be accessed and work could be obtained.Koudelka, who is originally from the Czech Republic and has previous convictions, pleaded guilty to possessing false identity documents and to possessing apparatus and machinery designed or adapted to make false documents after the raid on August 19, 2020.

Richard Adams, defending, said Koudelka has lived in the UK for 18 years and he has worked but he is of poor heath after suffereing a back injury following an industrial accident in 2009 and he has undergone heart surgery.

Mr Adams added that Koudelka and his wife care for their grandson after the couple’s daughter left the UK after a man had tried to involve her in an arranged marriage.

Koudelka claimed he was forced to get involved in the offending after the man who had tried to facilitate the arranged marriage of his daughter claimed he was owed money, according to Mr Adams.

Recorder Gordon who acknowledged Koudelka’s operation had been unsophisticated told him: “This is offending which strikes at the heart of our financial system, strikes at the heart of our benefit system and our driver licence regime in the UK.

“And this kind of behaviour threatens to subvert those systems which are in place for everyone’s protection.”

Recorder Gordon sentenced Koudelka on September 20 to 15 months of custody.