A judge has described a man’s claim he was given counterfeit notes as payment for a job he completed as “nonsense”.

During a contest heard at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Tuesday, District Judge Steven Keown said the defendant knew what he was doing when he used the €50 notes in two shops.

Clive Thomas Hunter (39), of Grove Park, Enniskillen, said he received €150 in payment for work he carried out in Ederney on December 28, 2020.

He told the court he was contacted by a man after he put an ad on Facebook, and asked for £100 in payment for the work, which lasted from around 9.30am and finished at 3.30pm.

However, instead of being paid with £100, Hunter was paid €150. He then went and used a €50 note in a shop in Ederney, and one in Kesh on the same day.

A police officer who handed in the notes to the court said they were a good counterfeit, and Hunter also said he did not think there was anything wrong with the notes.

Hunter, in his evidence, told the court that he used the notes in the two shops as he was on his way to Pettigo to get fuel.

When asked did he know or believed the notes were not genuine, Hunter said he had no indication the notes were fake.

He said they seemed real, and he was more than happy to accept €150 for a day’s work.
During cross-examination, Hunter was asked if it was odd for him to be working on a bank holiday, and he replied no.

When asked about the person he was dealing with, Hunter said he thought he was “genuine”, and admitted what he received was more money than he asked for.

The prosecution put it to Hunter that he knew the notes were fake, and said he was trying to get rid of them, to which he replied: “That’s wrong.”

Asked

Judge Keown then asked Hunter why he did not give the police the address of the man who gave him the notes?

Hunter said he did not want to get involved because the man was a Traveller, with his barrister, Steffan Rafferty, pointing out Hunter was not asked by police for this information.

In submissions, the prosecution said Hunter lacked credibility and knew the notes were counterfeit.

However, Mr. Rafferty said Hunter was forthright in his response to the police, and proffered the location of where he used the other notes, as only one was being investigated.

He pointed out that when one of the notes was checked in the Ederney shop, there was no mark made, and they were happy to accept it, as was the shop in Kesh.

Mr. Rafferty added Hunter did not know the notes were false, and had no reason to believe they were.

However, in his findings, Judge Keown said it was not unusual for someone with counterfeit notes to say they got them off a man they did not know. Describing Hunter’s claim as “nonsense”, the judge said that Hunter knew what he was doing.

Hunter was fined £500 for two counts of tendering counterfeit currency.