THE public is being warned to be on alert about the circulation of fake foreign currency notes in the country.
Police Commissioner Mathew Varley has warned the public to be on a look out for these fake notes which believe to be circulated in the country by some people.
The call following an incident last week which involves disputes related to those fake notes at the Coral Sea Resort.
“It’s an usual case in Honiara where on 29th of January, our police officers were called to the Coral Sea Resort in relation to a dispute there between some of the staff and members of the public,” he said.
He said the dispute is related to the presentation of obviously counterfeit foreign currency and this is in relation to what appears to counterfeit US50 note and counterfeit 500 Euro notes.
The Commissioner said it’s alleged that a number of men were involved in handing those fake notes to the Coral Sea Casino as part of the exchange of money.
He said Police investigation has established that no evidence that suggest that they knew those notes were fake at the time that they presented them and therefore charges were not laid.
Varley then warned the communities to look out for that fake notes given that there is a potential that there could be more of the fake notes circulating in the country.
He said the first thing to know of the fake notes is they are relatively low quality copies of existing US 50 notes and 500 Euro notes.
“The first and obvious thing to note is that the counterfeit notes are appeared to be copies of the US and Euro notes but they also have some obvious marks on them that indicate they are fake.
“The obvious marks include some red letter agent character that is appearing on the front of the notes which are not present on normal US or Euro currencies,” he added.
Varley said other fixtures include some lines and doted marks that indicate that they are not genuine notes and if someone is not paying attention, it is possible that they could be confused.
He said at the moment, Police have recovered only a few numbers of these notes not more than five and are lodged into custody as part of police exhibit process in their investigation.
“As police investigation is ongoing, we asked that if anyone has come across any of these fake notes, do please call the police or hand them to the police as they have no value,” he said.
Varley said business owners and shop keepers need to aware of these fake notes otherwise they would fall victim of the circulated counterfeits.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank is already alerted on the counterfeit notes.
By IAN M.KAUKUI
