A courier in Changhua County was arrested Wednesday after 207 counterfeit banknotes of varying amounts were seized from his vehicle and home a day earlier, local police said Thursday.
Two NT$1,000, five NT$500, and 200 NT$100 fake bills were discovered at the residence of the man, surnamed Lai (?), in Dacun Township and his motorbike by police, who acted on a tip-off received on Jan. 17, Yang Chih-jie (???), a policeman at the Yuanlin Precinct told reporters.
According to Yang, Yuanlin police received a report from Fangyuan Precinct that Lai had given a customer two NT$100 banknotes both with the serial number CQ281880VJ, on Jan. 8 as change for NT$1,000.
Police later seized a total of 207 counterfeit bills from Lai’s scooter and residence, Yang said.
Lai told police that he spent NT$4,698 (US$154.54) to buy 660 counterfeit banknotes online in November and that he had been giving customers the notes as change over the past three months.
Police estimated that Lai might have racked up some NT$40,000 in illegal gains as of Wednesday.
According to Changhua police, at least four individuals had been known to have received fake bills.
Lai, meanwhile, was being questioned by Changhua prosecutors.
The issue of counterfeit notes has come to the fore in Taiwan recently, after reports of fake bills in Taoyuan, Yunlin, Kaohsiung and Changhua.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel