Jail price for forging notes
Two-year sentence for man who made fake bank notes and used them around region
Aman who forged $50 notes and spent them all around the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato has been jailed for more than two years. Nicholas Albert Parker, 38, from Tokoroa, had pleaded guilty to 20 charges in May.
They included 12 counts of using forged documents and three charges each of forgery to obtain over $500 and possessing forged banknotes.
Parker also pleaded guilty to two charges each of possession of implements and materials to make false banknotes and using documents for pecuniary advantage.
According to the police summary of facts, Parker got away with spending his counterfeit notes all around the Bay of Plenty and Waikato for more than five weeks.
He spent some time perfecting his fake $50 notes and printed a significant quantity of his forgeries which he used at businesses in Hamilton, Tirau, Matamata, Cambridge, Rotorua, Mount Maunganui, Putaruru, Tokoroa and Taupo¯.
The aluminium joiner would screw up his fake notes to try to hide the fact they were counterfeit and would engage in a conversation with the person behind the counter to distract them.
Between March 22 and April 26, Parker visited various businesses and made small purchases using forged $50 notes to get change in real money. The businesses included Mobil Te Rapa station in Hamilton, The Warehouse in Cambridge, Pak’nsave Rotorua, Fresh Choice in Rotorua, and Pricewise Bayfair in Mount Maunganui.
Parker also used the same scam to obtain goods and cash from Caltex in Tirau, Mega Mitre 10 in Hamilton, and takeaway shops in Putaruru, Tirau and Tokoroa.
He attempted to do so at Matamata New World on April 27 but fled the store after being confronted by a staff member.
Parker also obtained two false driver’s licences. The first was used in January to apply for a tenancy agreement for a Rotorua property for him and his partner. They stayed there until they were evicted on March 29.
In early April, Parker also made a second false driver’s licence and used it to secure accommodation at Rotorua Downtown Backpackers.
On April 12, Parker also visited Pricewise at Bayfair and bought toothpaste, deodorant and a sewing kit and paid for the items with a fake $50 note and got $37 in change.
Staff went to the bank immediately after to change the banknote and realised it was fake.
A short while later, a staff member recognised Parker still in the mall and confronted him about the fake note — resulting in the goods and $37 being returned.
An off-duty police officer also took his photograph and a search warrant was carried out at Parker’s thenrotorua home the same day.
Inside police found printers, ink cartridges, failed false identity cards and failed forged banknotes, the summary said.
Parker was found at a Sterling Place house in Tokoroa on April 28.
A printer, failed forged banknotes, stacks of paper, a roll of clear film, glue and bottles of dye were found at the Tokoroa house.
Parker told the police his crimes were committed because he had no money.
On September 10 in the Rotorua District Court, Judge Philip Cooper sentenced Parker to two years and two months in prison.
Detective Sergeant Leonie Smith of the Rotorua CIB earlier told the Rotorua Daily Post that Parker was nabbed after an off-duty police officer spotted him at Bayfair shopping mall in Mount Maunganui on April 9.
It came to the officer’s attention because he was mingling with a man he was aware had previously been linked with presenting a counterfeit $50 note, Smith said
She also said the off-duty officer showed “good instincts” to take a photograph of Parker and his associate, and circulated it among police.
Pricewise manager Darcy Hemara earlier told the Rotorua Daily Post she was proud of her staff for playing a small part in helping to catch Parker.
She said just after Parker handed her colleague the fake note, they needed more change in the tills so she took cash to a bank in the mall to get change.
Hemara said the machine “spat” the fake note back out and ripped it, and she knew straight away it was fake and when she held the note “it didn’t feel like an actual note”.