Cashing in on ‘worthless’ coins

Vienna – An Austrian court confirmed the acquittal of a man accused of fraud after he cashed in dozens of kilos of scrap euro coins imported from China.

The German national was arrested in the spring after using a change machine at a bank in the western city of Bregenz to convert huge quantities of damaged coins into banknotes.

Police discovered 117kg of one- and two-euro coins, with a total value of €15 000 (R230 000), in his car.

Having been charged with fraud and put in detention, the man explained that he regularly went to China to buy damaged coins retrieved from cars and washing machines sent there to be destroyed.

However, an appeal court in Innsbruck on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s decision to acquit him, rejecting an appeal from prosecutors.

“My client was using a machine which is designed precisely to determine whether a coin is legal tender or not. So there can’t be any fraud,” the man’s lawyer Christoph Eberle, said.

The man made frequent trips to China with up to €30 000 in cash in order to stock up on damaged euros, but Eberle said his client had always made the relevant declarations to customs authorities.