Forgery Detection Equipment

Border Force is a Directorate of the Home Office. Border Force has a requirement for five (5) units of forgery detection equipment of the following specification; 1.

A visual spectral comparator, capable of subjecting questioned documents to a range of different light frequencies [white (flood), white (flood) spot, short/medium/long UV, oblique (side), infra-red (absorption/reflective/fluorescence) including anti-stokes, transmitted UV, transmitted and transmitted spot] to enable: a) Examination of known security features for signs of simulation/tampering; b) Examination of pages for signs of watermark simulation, counterfeiting of pages and alteration/concealment of endorsements; and c) Examination of inks used in bio-data, visas and endorsements to confirm authenticity against known issued examples. 2. Equipment must be of a standard and design commonly recognised by, and employed by, professional forensic document examiners and expertisers of valuable printed matter (e.g. banknotes, stamps, antiquarian books etc) 3.

Equipment must include a visual display unit capable of saving images in a suitable digital format. 4. Equipment must include functions of magnification [minimum x40 optical] against a database of specimen documents. 5.

Equipment must include UV [254/312/365 nm] and co-axial light sources. 6. Equipment must include optical character recognition, and the capability to decode IPI, and view latent images and optically variable devices. 7.

Equipment must be capable of use by a competent Border Force specialist forgery officer without the need for specific training. 8. Equipment must be of such a recognised forensic standard as to enable the observations and the findings of examinations to be defended with confidence in a court of criminal law. 9.

Equipment must be delivered to the five Border Force offices in scope by 31 March 2017 certain. Home Office terms & conditions of contract (Short Form Goods November 2011) shall apply to any subsequent order.