Big payback for fake R5 coins
2004-02-05 17:49
Johannesburg - In the first of the fake five rand coin trials to be finalised in Gauteng, a man was given a 10-year jail sentence in the Commercial Crime Court in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Rene Collen, 52, of Tarlton on the West Rand, was jailed in terms of a plea bargain after negotiations by his legal representative, Joe Strauss.
He pleaded guilty to three charges under the Reserve Bank Act and one charge under the Counterfeiting of Currency Act, relating to the period between August 2002 and February 2003.
The plea bargain had to be approved by the SA Reserve Bank and the go-ahead was given by deputy reserve bank president, Gill Marcus.
Under the Counterfeiting of Currency Act, Collen admitted in the written plea bargain that he illegally possessed the oven, tools, engraving and manufacturing equipment used in the illegal production of the fake five rand coins.
Other facts agreed on in the plea bargain included Collen's admission he had issued the coins and that 1 857 coins were involved. When he was arrested, he possessed a large quantity of blanks discs the size of five rand coins.
Collen, a Belgian national who owned property in South Africa, was arrested last February. His visa expired a few days after his arrest.
In return for his guilty pleas on the four counts, his council had negotiated 10 years' imprisonment.
He could have been jailed for far longer if a lengthy and expensive trial had ensued.
- SAPA