/ 13 February 2003

Cops crack counterfeit R5 coin syndicate

A man, his daughter and her friend were arrested in Tarlton on the West Rand on Wednesday for allegedly producing counterfeit R5 coins, police said.

Inspector Yolande Bouwer said the 51-year-old man, his 29-year-old daughter and another 29-year-old man were arrested on a plot in Tarlton where police found a well organised manufacturing plant and confiscated about 1800 counterfeit R5 coins, 110 000 blank coins, punches, a furnace and a variety of chemicals and equipment used to produce the counterfeit coins.

The three arrested were taken to the Randfontein police cells and would appear shortly in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court facing charges in terms of the Reserve Bank Act 90 of 1989, Bouwer said.

Last week, a middle-aged couple appeared in a Johannesburg court for allegedly being involved in the manufacturing and issuing of the fake R5 coins in Gauteng. – Sapa