Five in court for fake money

2013-02-02 07:30

SA money.

Johannesburg - Four men and a woman appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court for possession of counterfeit money, Mpumalanga police said on Friday.

The suspects, Peter Mokoena 43, Goodwill Mkhabela 31, Thulani Isaac Dube 56, Mjalifa Shabalala, 71, and Agnes Joyce Green, 52, appeared in court on Friday.

Colonel Leonard Hlathi said the five were arrested after information was received by the Hawks that a certain man was looking for a buyer of counterfeit money.

"An undercover operation was initiated where an agent met with the man and a transaction was initiated whereby the suspect requested an amount of R35 000 cash in an exchange for R100 000 counterfeit money," said Hlathi.

"A disruptive operation was then conducted and the suspect was busted in possession of R118 000 in counterfeit notes."

Further investigation revealed that the men had two lookout vehicles with three men and one woman.

Police then approached these individuals and arrested them.

They then proceeded to the house of the first suspect where they retrieved another R4 000 in counterfeit money, making the total R122 000.

Four of them were granted bail of R5 000 bail each except Dube whose residential address police still had to verify.

The counterfeit money was made up of R100 and R200 notes of both the old bank notes and the new Mandela notes.

The case was postponed to 6 February.

- SAPA