18 Jan 2014

Fake banknotes used in Auckland

7:50 am on 18 January 2014

Police in Auckland are trying to find whether there is a link between three separate incidents over the last few months of fake banknotes being used in North Shore.

Police released a photo of a man they want to identify.

Police released a photo of a man they want to identify. Photo: NZ POLICE

Police said a man paid for a coffee at a supermarket on Tuesday with a counterfeit $100 bill, but they are yet to find and identify him.

A fake $50 note was used at a butcher shop just before Christmas, and at a Glenfield clothes shop in October.

A 21-year-old woman has been charged with misusing a document in the clothes shop incident but police don't know where that note came from.

In November the police in the south of city warned about counterfeit $50 and $100 notes circulating through that area.

Officers said at the time the genuine notes were made of a polymer which was quite tough, difficult to tearand water-resistant, whereas counterfeit paper notes were easier to tear and not water-resistant.

Police say knowingly passing a counterfeit note is a crime and potentially punishable by a lengthy prison term.