Friday 23 February 2018

Cash-strapped couple arrested at Gateshead for producing counterfeit bills

BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE 

Two people have been charged over the alleged creation and distribution of fake money in the Hunter.

A 20-year-old man and 24-year-old woman are accused of producing counterfeit $50-dollar notes and spending them at businesses in Port Stephens, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

Police caught up with the pair at a service station on the Pacific Highway at Gateshead on Tuesday, before arresting them at a pub across the road.

Their hotel room was searched, where police found numerous counterfeit currencies, mobile phones, tablets and machinery to produce the fake notes.

The young man and woman have both been charged with numerous offences, and will face Belmont local Court next month.

It comes after 41-year-old Terry Lee Johns handed himself in at Nelson Bay Police Station on the weekend for the same offence, after using counterfeit $50 notes at Lemon Tree Passage, Salamander Bay and the Maitland Regional Show.