Police analysts have had to come up with new techniques for retrieving fingerprints from Scottish polymer banknotes because they are uniquely difficult to test.
Every year detectives seize hundreds of thousands of pounds of dirty money and use fingerprint evidence to link the cash to criminals under investigation.
Experts working at the Scottish Police Authority’s crime campus in Gartcosh, near Glasgow, have had to discover new ways to lift fingerprints from the unique plastic coating.
Carina Joannidis, of the Centre for Forensic Science at Strathclyde University, who led the investigation, said: “In any criminal investigation a suspect can be linked to an object or place by the presence of their fingermarks.
“Unfortunately, conventional mark enhancement techniques that are recommended for use on the old cotton
