An Angus man caught with almost £1,000 of fake £20 notes in a police swoop has narrowly escaped jail.
Gareth Brown was intercepted by police as he drove up the main A90 Dundee to Aberdeen dual carriageway and a search of his vehicle uncovered the money. Brown claimed it had been given to him by another man he sold items to after hitting hard times.
At Forfar Sheriff Court on Thursday, the painter and decorator was told that only the fact the fake notes were not then used had saved him from a prison sentence.
Brown (26), of Caddam Crescent, Northmuir, had earlier admitted that on October 11 last year on the A90 near Moatmill he had a quantity of £20 Clydesdale Bank notes which he knew or believed to be counterfeit, contrary to the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981.
Fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie said Brown was pulled over by officers after a police check showed up intelligence relating to the vehicle he was in. Officers then discovered the 49 £20 notes, which when examined under UV light proved not to have appropriate markings.
Brown told police he did not know the money was counterfeit until he had been stopped, adding that they had come from someone called Sandy he had travelled to Dundee to sell items to some weeks earlier.
Defence agent Nick Markowski said his client had endured a difficult 2011 in which he had lost his job and then his relationship with his partner had broken down.
”There has been a substantial gap in his offending, which coincided with getting in a relationship and becoming a father,” he said. ”The important thing is that an alternative to custody is available and he is hopeful of employment once the building trade picks up.
”Things weren’t going well in his life at this time and maybe this was outwith his normal way of thinking. He was not getting up and going to work as he would normally do, and made the wrong decision.
”He’s not someone who’s normally dishonest. His record does not indicate that sort of behaviour,” added Mr Markowski.
Sheriff Veal said: ”The possession of counterfeit notes is always serious because they can cause mayhem in the business community.”
Brown was given a 12-month Community Payback Order with a condition that he completes 180 hours of unpaid work.