UK sentences art forger to 2 years in jail

LONDON – British police say a man has been sentenced to two years in jail for forging up to 1,000 paintings.

Scotland Yard says 63-year-old William Mumford imitated artists such as Maqbool Fida Husain, Kyffin Williams and John Tunnard.

It says a number of co-conspirators had placed the works for sale on eBay and at British auction houses in exchange for a 20 percent cut.

Police said the scam was identified in 2009 after a major auction house saw that an unusually large number of Husain paintings were offered for sale.

Police said Mumford admitted creating up to 1,000 forgeries and that detectives found some of his bogus works had been sold for up to 30,000 pounds ($38,500).

Mumford was sentenced Thursday at a London court after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud.