Vitebsk counterfeiter sentenced to three years of restriction of freedom

June 23, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. A 27-year-old Vitebsk resident has been sentenced to three years of restriction of liberty for counterfeiting money, the BELTA correspondent was informed by the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee's Internal Affairs Directorate. In total, at the beginning of 2009, he printed 70 counterfeit banknotes of Br20 thousand using his personal office equipment, which he intended to legalize with the help of three accomplices. The counterfeiter's activities were stopped thanks to the vigilance of a trolleybus conductor. The woman noticed suspicious banknotes that passengers used to pay for travel tickets. As it turned out, the Vitebsk resident, who had a previous conviction, decided to help his friend in this way, who urgently needed money to solve personal problems. Having printed the counterfeits on a printer, the criminal duo planned to legalize them by purchasing small goods and services and receiving change in real money. They involved two more acquaintances in the scheme. The young people paid with counterfeit banknotes when buying lottery tickets and paid for public transport. In total, they managed to sell 10 counterfeits. The court of the Zheleznodorozhny District of Vitebsk found the counterfeiter guilty of committing a crime under Article 221 of the Criminal Code of Belarus ("Counterfeiting, storage or circulation of counterfeit money or securities"). His three accomplices are still awaiting the court's decision. -0-