Four men have been jailed after police busted an Eastern European crime network that used a Friern Barnet house to produce more than a million pounds-worth of fake passports.

Following an intelligence operation in July last year police raided a house in Poplar Grove and discovered 1,800 counterfeit passports, which they have described as the Met's biggest ever haul.

The four men all came from Eastern Europe, but lived in Barnet at the time of their arrest. Today they were found guilty of manufacturing the documents at Harrow Crown Court and sentenced to a total of 22 years imprisonment.

Bulgarian Krum Poibrenski, 31, and Bulgarian Kiril Velev, 29, both of Ballards Lane, Finchley, were sentenced to four and a half years with an additional 18 months to run consecutively for a similar offence in 2006.

Kosovan Dennis Cennoli, 25, of Collingwood Court, High Barnet and Albanian Altin Ibrahmimi, 31, of Bowe Road, New Southgate were both sentenced to five years. Judge Anthony Bright recommended that all four men be deported after serving their sentences.

The fraud was exposed by an intelligence operation undertaken by the Met's Operation Maxim, which targets organised immigration crime in the capital.

Their investigations led them to the two-bedroom house in Poplar Grove. When it was raided they found the counterfeit passports, 220 of which were older-style passports which are often considered by counterfeiters as too complex to convincingly fake.

They also discovered laser printers and materials with which the convicted men could produce ID cards and driving licenses. As police entered the property, a UK driving license was being printed from one of the printers.

Cennoli, Poibrenski and Velev were all arrested during the raid. Ibrihimi was later arrested at a separate address.

Acting Detective Chief Inspector Nick Downing, from the Met's Economic and Specialist Crime Command, said that the documents could have been used by criminals, as well as by illegal imigrants to enter the UK.

He added: "This is the largest amount of counterfeit passports that Operation Maxim and the MPS have ever had and potentially the largest within the UK. The estimated street value of this seizure is well over a million pounds.

"Today's result has proved that our activity has not only disrupted a well established and organised criminal network, but as a result it will make London safer."