Counterfeit Money: Man Sentenced To 30 Days

Tio Weeks was back before Senior Magistrate Archie Warner today [Dec 12], this time pleading guilty to a charge of passing a counterfeit $50 bill last month the Marketplace store on Church Street.

He was sentenced to thirty days in prison, however it to run concurrently with his sentence he received earlier this month for assaulting a woman, meaning he will not serve extra prison time.

Crown Prosecutor Maria Sofianos told the Senior Mgistrate that Weeks had used the $50 bill to pay $14.75 for a six pack of beer and had pocketed the change. Shortly after, the cashier noted that the bill was likely a fake and she sent a packer to get Mr Weeks, who by then had left the shop.

In his defence, Mr Weeks told the Magistrate that he had panicked after he had been approached by the packer and had run off. He told the Magistrate: “I didn’t know it was counterfeit.”

Ms Sofianos advised the Magistrate that the maximum penalty for this offence was a fine of $5,000 and/or two years in prison. She reminded the Magistrate that Weeks had a criminal record that stretched back years.

In passing sentence, the Magistrate said that after taking everything into consideration, the offence merited a prison sentence of 30 days. The Magistrate ordered that this sentence should be concurrent with the existing two year sentence.

#CurrencyAndCoins #MagistratesAndSupremeCourt #TioWeeks

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