Angus police caught two men with almost £1,000 in counterfeit notes, a court heard.
Michael Thomas Summers and Ian Alfred Cleeton were carrying 98 fake Bank of Scotland notes when they were intercepted on the outskirts of Montrose earlier this year.
Cleeton, from Milngavie, appeared at an intermediate diet at Forfar Sheriff Court and admitted possessing the £10 notes in the town’s Rossie Island Road on March 29, with the intention of passing them on or offering them as genuine currency.
Summers, of Clydebank, had been due to appear for sentence but did not appear for medical reasons.
Defence agent Philip Lafferty appeared for both accused.
The solicitor said: “Mr Summers had previously tendered a guilty plea.
“I received a phone call from his solicitor, a member of family saying he took a seizure yesterday.
“I appear on my own for Mr Cleeton, and today he will tender a plea of guilty to two charges.”
The Crown accepted a reduced amount from 159 notes.
Cleeton, 41, of Learmont Place, admitted having a counterfeit currency note, intending either to pass or tender it as genuine or to deliver it to another with that intention, under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, and also possessing controlled drugs.
Summers, 27, of Parkhall Terrace, Clydebank, admitted passing or tendering a counterfeit of a currency note or of a protected coin, and having a counterfeit currency note, intending either to pass or tender it as genuine or to deliver it to another with that intention
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown deferred sentence on both men to October 12 for the preparation of criminal justice social work reports, and Summers’ personal appearance.
The case follows repeated calls by Tayside Division of Police Scotland for Angus residents to be aware of the passing of counterfeit notes.
Detectives appealed for information over the use of counterfeit bank notes in the Montrose in August – just four weeks after a warning in the same area.
In July, a number of incidents were reported over a three-day period in Kirriemuir, Forfar, Arbroath, Dundee, Stanley and Auchterarder.
