Filenews 12 June 2021 - by Ioanna Mantziepa
On alert for several counterfeit €20 banknotes circulating in Limassol is the Limassol T.E.O. after all 6 complaints it has received in recent times from kiosk owners. As "F" informs, efforts are being made to identify other stands whose owners/managers have been fooled by deft.
In the hands of the Limassol Crime Detection Department is a 20-year-old man who admitted to being the person who gave counterfeit €20 notes to a minor in order to buy products from kiosks and return the change to him.
Authorities arrived at the 20-year-old's whereabouts when a minor went to a kiosk on Thursday morning and after buying cigarettes and coffee paid with a counterfeit €20 note and got change. The 17-year-old left the scene and the walker found that the €20 was a forgery.
Two hours later the 17-year-old went back to the kiosk where he asked to buy cigarettes and paid again with a counterfeit note. The staff member, however, realized it was a forgery and immediately alerted the police.
Members of the Limassol T.E.O. went to the scene and transferred the young man to the Police Directorate, where in the presence of his parents and lawyer, the minor reported that the notes were given to him by a 20-year-old man to go to the stand, while he claimed that he did not know they were counterfeit. A search of the 17-year-old's home found nothing.
The 20-year-old was subsequently arrested on a court order and two other counterfeit €20 notes were found in a search of his home.
The 20-year-old was brought before the court which ordered his detention for a period of four days. In a statement, he said his counterfeit notes were given to him by a foreigner. He faces the offences of counterfeiting notes, circulation of counterfeit notes and conspiracy to commit a felony.
The Limassol T.E.O. continues the examinations while looking for other persons as accomplices in the cases of counterfeit notes.
