got in Bermuda were forgeries.

Some travellers found themselves in trouble with British Police when they innocently tried to use the fake cash, it was revealed yesterday.

The travellers, who were compensated by bank officials when they got home, were victims of Britain's latest boom in counterfeit currency, which has seen forgers printing millions of fake 50 pound notes -- each worth about $73.

Now Bermuda residents changing dollars for pounds are being urged to be on their guard.

"It's come to our attention that a couple of our customers in possession of sterling currency notes have encountered problems in using them in Britain,'' said Mr. Stephen Todd, senior retail banking manager at the Bank of Butterfield.

"They have been referred to the police in Britain, or in a couple of instances they have brought the notes back to Bermuda to try to resolve the problem internally. They have been reimbursed.'' Only three fake 50 pound notes were involved, he said.

UK banks that supply Bermudian banks are screening notes for fakes, Mr. Todd said. But notes could also arrive through restaurants and hotels who accepted them in good faith.

"It's a question of us doing the best we can to ensure that notes passed to us are in fact genuine.'' But he advised residents to look carefully at UK notes, checking for a watermark and examining ink markings, colour, paper quality and similarity to other notes.

Bank of Bermuda spokesman Mr. Christian Traber said the bank had come across a case of four fake 50 pound notes.

"We're always cognisant of forgeries. We suggest that if a customer is concerned about the legitimacy of any bills, they come and talk to us.'' Yesterday British Police seized stacks of forged banknotes with a face value of up to five million pounds in the latest of a series of counterfeit money hauls in southern England.

"There are believed to be between three million and five million pounds of counterfeit 50 pound notes in the haul,'' a Police spokeswoman said.

She said one person was arrested in the raid on an industrial park in a district of north London.

The largest quantity of counterfeit notes seized in Britain was in January 1992 when forged Dutch guilders with a face value of 20 million pounds were found in north London.

Two million pounds in fake notes were confiscated in another raid in London in January.