3 1/2 years jail for man who printed fake currency notes

3 1/2 years jail for man who printed fake currency notes

BROKE and indebted to loan sharks, Sasi Kumar Lakshmanan decided to print fake currency notes for use.

Yesterday, the 29-year-old was jailed for 31/2 years for using a fake $100 currency note to pay for cigarettes. He had also created a counterfeit $50 note.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Magdalene Huang said Sasi Kumar decided to print some counterfeit currency notes as he was in financial difficulty and owed loan sharks more than $5,000.

On July 11, he took a $100 note and placed it on a printer.

He realised the colour of the photocopied $100fa note was almost the same as the genuine one. To make it more accurate, he adjusted the colour of the photocopied $100 note.

After five or six tries, he finally managed to produce a photocopied $100 note that closely resembled a genuine one.

He then printed another four copies of the note and cut them to the right size.

The next day, he produced one of the fake $100 notes at Foodpark coffee shop at Block 2, Lorong Lew Lian, to pay for two packets of cigarettes totalling $21.80.

He pocketed the $78.20 in change.

The fake note was discovered by a stall supervisor, who made a police report on July 13.

Police raided Sasi Kumar's home in Lorong Lew Lian and found, among other things, a counterfeit $50 note.

In his written mitigation plea, Sasi Kumar said his wife was due to deliver their third child soon. He said he suffers from epileptic fits and had just found a job doing deliveries for a friend.

Two other charges of using a fake $100 note and having instruments for making them were taken into consideration.

He could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined on each charge.

elena@sph.com.sg


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