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Man gets 10 months for using fake cash

By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-15 07:36

SHANGHAI: A man from Guangxi has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for using counterfeit 100-yuan bills, Shanghai Nanhui district court announced on Tuesday.

Mo Qinsong, 34, told the court he purchased 55 counterfeit 100-yuan notes - all with serial numbers starting with "HD90" - from a young man at a Guangzhou railway station on Nov 9. Mo paid only 10 yuan ($1.45) for each note.

Three days later, Mo came to Shanghai seeking a job. The next day, he tried to use 52 fake bills and one real banknote to buy a gold necklace worth more than 5,200 yuan at a jewelry store in Nanhui district's Zhoupu town.

"The cash detector in the store failed to detect the fakes," a judge surnamed Fu told China Daily.

"But the sales clerk said the notes felt strange and asked a manager to come over.

"The manager asked Mo where he got the notes from, and Mo tried to take them back. When he failed to do so, he began to run but was quickly apprehended."

Fu said police could not find the fake notes' source, because Mo claimed he did not know the young man.

Also, a man suspected of transporting large numbers of fake notes faced a criminal trial in Yiwu, Zhejiang, yesterday.

The 56-year-old suspect, Xiong Duocheng, of Hunan province's Daoxian county, allegedly carried a bag of fake notes on Nov 2. Counterfeit bills with a face value of 830,000 yuan were found in the bag, 7,656 of which were 100-yuan notes with serial numbers starting with "HD90".

Large numbers of counterfeit 100-yuan notes, most with serial numbers starting with "HD90", have recently been found in several cities.