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An unemployed father-of-three, who lost his job as a bus driver, was found guilty of possessing a fake 500 Saudi riyal note.
The High Criminal Court sentenced the 48-year-old Bahraini to three years in prison, and fined him BD500 for the charge of ‘intending to promote the banknote as if it was a genuine form of currency’.
He earlier denied all charges, claiming that the note has been given to him by a passenger and that he accepted it out of his own ‘foolishness’.
The defendant from East Sitra claimed that the customer gave him the 500-riyal note (BD50) and asked for BD30 in change.
The forged note was found among the defendant’s personal belongings, after he was arrested on suspicion of drug possession. He was also sentenced to three months in prison and fined BD100 for possessing narcotics.
A forensic expert described the quality of the counterfeit note as ‘decent’ and that a layperson would likely to have been tricked into believing it was real.
He stated that the note purported to have been issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority. Careful examination revealed it to be a scanned forgery. A Central Investigation Department (CID) police officer also testified that the note was fake.
The court heard the former driver had been previously charged with having counterfeit currency, carrying the same kind of note.
Possessing a forged form of currency is a felony, outlawed by Articles 262 and 263 of the Bahrain Penal Code. It specifically criminalises ‘any person who imitates, forges or counterfeits in any manner whatsoever any currency notes or coins’ that are in circulation in Bahrain ‘with the intent of using or trading in them’.
Since the Saudi riyal is widely accepted as a form of payment in Bahrain, the law applies. ‘Distributing or possessing’ the forged currency is also illegal.
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