Oman police arrest one in fake currency case

Muscat: The Royal Oman Police (ROP) arrested a person for forging Omani riyals following a complaint lodged by a petrol filling station employee in Al Kamil W’al Wafi area, about 200km east of Muscat.

“We got a call from an employee of a petrol filling station in Al Kamil W’al Wafi area that he was given a counterfeit currency note by a customer,” a spokesman for the ROP said.

According to the petrol filling station employee an Omani citizen filled petrol in his car and bought a mobile phone recharge card for which he paid a 50 Omani riyals note. “On a closer inspection the employee realised that it was a fake currency note,” he added.

“The Omani customer fled when the employee refused to accept the currency and asked him to give another note,” he said, adding that the accused didn’t even wait to take the fake note back.

The employee, the police said, noted down the registration details of the car in which the accused had come.

The subsequent police investigations revealed that the accused had defrauded a furniture vendor in the same area by giving fake notes as a payment.

“We matched the counterfeit currencies given to the petrol filling station employee as well as the furniture vendor and the series number was the same,” he revealed.

Based on the car registration number noted by the petrol filing station employee, the ROP sleuths caught the accused from south eastern region of Oman.

After his arrest the accused confessed that he had printed the counterfeit notes at his house using a computer, a scanner and a printer. “The police confiscated all the paraphernalia used by the accused in printing the fake notes,” the ROP spokesman said.

The accused was handed over to the Public Prosecution for further investigations and a court case.

Last February, two Omanis had landed in trouble in India after they were sold fake Indian currencies from a money exchange in Muscat. The two were released by the Indian authorities after it was established that they were not at fault.

The ROP investigations revealed that an Asian, who transited through Muscat for a few hours, sold fake currencies to money exchanges close to the airport. He was caught on CCTV but police are yet to arrest him as he fled the country after selling counterfeit Indian currency notes.