A 61-year-old man was sentenced to three years in prison at York Crown Court in North Yorkshire on Friday 13 March 2026 after running a decade-long operation selling thousands of fake professional certificates. David Grundy, of Coton Avenue in Stafford, operated a website with his brother that sold counterfeit qualifications to customers across the world for as much as £1,000 each.
According to National Trading Standards, the business generated approximately £900,000 in sales by offering what it called high quality and flawless documents. The investigation was led by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, which is jointly hosted by the City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council.
The counterfeit certificates allowed people to pass themselves off as qualified in safety-critical fields such as biomedical science, optometry, engineering, and teaching. Investigators found that at least 70 people in the UK had used these fake documents to secure jobs or gain places on higher education courses.
Officers executed a warrant at Grundy’s home in December 2021 where they seized specialist equipment including embossing stamps, holograms, and a laser engraver used to create the forgeries. They also recovered a handwritten list containing the names of nearly 300 customers who had purchased the fraudulent papers.
Grundy had previously ignored a formal legal warning from the Joint Council for Qualifications to stop his activities before continuing and expanding his operation. Residents who believe they may have encountered a fraudulent qualification are advised to contact the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133.
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