Counterfeit notes found on beaches

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 4

Counterfeit notes found on beaches

PA Auckland ' Bundles of counterfeit ? New Zealand banknotes >1 with a face value of about ■{ $3OOO have been washed 0 up on North Shore I beaches during the last 11 week. J Detectives have warned ti banks to be on the alert l| because of the possibility ■! that thousands of dollars I more of the fake notes . may be circulating ! through New Zealand. Three bundles of the ; water-soaked counterfeit :l $2O notes have been found ; by local persons since [ March 30 at beaches be- | tween Takapuna and ChelI ten ham. I The notes recovered so I far have a face value of I $2860, but the police sat I that more of the counterfeit notes may still be sprinkled throughout Auckland. Detectives believe it possible that more parcels of the notes may have been found by persons

who have hoarded or destroyed them rather than informing the police. The officer leading the inquiry. Detective Inspector M. G. Charles, is anxious to hear from anyone who might have seen some of the notes during the last few weeks. Mr Charles said that the counterfeit notes were copies of three legitimate $2O notes. The fake notes carried one of three serial numbers: EE 273922. EE 292445. and CH 304379 Detectives were also keen to hear from any person who had one of three original notes. Discounting the possibility that the fake notes were the work of a prankster. Mr Charles said, “Someone had gone to a lot of trouble and time to have colour-copied at least three (legitimate) $2O notes. But the result has been an obvious and poor reproduction of the genuine notes."

Mr Charles said the fake notes were coloured just one shade of green, the predominant bitt not the only colour in a legitimate $2O note. The counterfeit notes were easy to detect because of the lack of other colours, the different texture of the paper used, and the green, rather than black, serial numbers. There had been no report yet of the forged notes being exchanged. "But one -of the possibilities that cannot be discounted is that the money has been manufactured for a "rip-off": an illicit transaction in drugs or some other area," said Mr Charles. .A single note would stand out as an obvious fake but a pile of the counterfeit notes could be successfully passed ,n such a transaction if they were mixed with genuine ones.