Indian-origin man jailed for printing fake notes

A 29-year-old Indian-origin man has been jailed for over three years for printing fake Singaporean currency notes here, according to a media report.

Sasi Kumar lakshmanan decided to print fake currency notes of SGD 100 and SGD 50.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Magdalene Huang said lakshmanan decided to print some counterfeit currency notes as he was in a financial difficulty and owed loan sharks more than SGD 5,000.

He realised the photocopy of SGD 100 note was almost the same as the genuine one. Following this, he photocopied notes that closely resembled a genuine SGD 100 note. He then printed another four copies of the notes and cut them to the right size, The Straits Times reported.

The next day, he produced one of the fake SGD 100 notes to pay for two packets of cigarettes totalling SGD 21.80. He pocketed the SGD 78.20 in change, the report said.

The fake note was discovered by a stall supervisor, who complained to police on July 13, two days after lakshmanan first printed the fake notes.

Police raided lakshmanan's home and found, among other things, a counterfeit SGD 50 note.

In his written mitigation plea, lakshmanan said his wife was due to deliver their third child soon. He said he suffers from epileptic fits and had just found a job doing deliveries for a friend.

Two other charges of using a fake note and having instruments for making them were taken into consideration, according to the Singapore daily report.

He could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined on each charge.