Fake $50 found at local cafe

POLICE are urging local business owners and patrons to assess their cash before making transactions and/or accepting change after a counterfeit $50 note was discovered in the till of a Torquay café in early January.

Yummy Tummy Cafe owner Kate Newton said she discovered the fake bill when she was closing the café at around 3pm.

“I was counting the till when I came across what I thought was two bills stuck together. We get a lot of tradies come in with oily hands and sometimes you don’t have time to look when you’re handling money under pressure,” she said.

“I was trying to pull them apart when it ripped.” Grubby, thick and marked with Asian lettering, the note’s clear window was unrecognisable, a giveaway to Ms Newton, who has owned the café for seven years.

“I remember something similar happening in Ocean Grove last year and being warned to ‘watch out’ so I put a photo of the note on the Surf Coast Community Noticeboard Facebook page when I got home,” she said.

After taking to social media and receiving a number of replies, Ms Newton handed in the counterfeit bill to the Torquay police station where she was told it would be sent to the Australian Federal Police.

The average Yummy Tummy customer spends $12 per order, resulting in a $38 loss for Ms Newton.

Torquay Leading Senior Constable Sean Raffety said the issue was circulating in the area as a result of printing technology.

“The way in which technology is heading is making the issue more prevalent.

It’s important for shopkeepers or anyone who receives a fraudulent note to remember where they obtained it and to bring it in to their local police station,” he said.

“It has been sent to the AFP for further investigation.”

Though the AFP works in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of Australia to examine such crimes, it is believed counterfeiters are using cheap printing technology to create fake bills that look and feel like polymer banknotes.

The $50 note’s new design and security update in 2018 hasn’t stopped its fraudulent duplication, with the RBA finding that 60 per cent of counterfeits in Victoria are $50 notes.

If you’re unsure if you’ve received a counterfeit, head to banknotes.rba.gov.au/ counterfeit-detection/counterfeit detection guidor visit your local police station.