Safety Warehouse Giveaway: Counterfeit $ 5 bills used to fool Hamilton’s bar

Counterfeit money from a controversial promotional cash sale in Auckland has been used to trick a bar into offering free drinks in Hamilton.

On Saturday, workwear company The Safety Warehouse hosted a $ 100,000 cash delivery at Aotea Square in downtown Auckland.

Tensions flared when some of the money turned out to be discount vouchers for the online store, printed to look like $ 5 bills.

The deceived attendees demanded to be compensated with real money, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern apologized.

But that has not stopped the “tickets” from being used.

In Hamilton, the Outback Inn discovered $ 20 worth of similar bills in its cash register from Saturday night collections.

John Lawrenson, CEO of the Lawrenson Group, told Newshub that they didn’t even realize it until the end of the night.

“The manager was counting the boxes and noticed that some of the $ 5 bills were slightly different from the others. It turned out that the money from the cash deposit had made its way to Hamilton and had been used to buy a few drinks.”

Lawrenson said the amount used was relatively irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but he believes other establishments could be affected.

“[The $5 notes] They are quite similar and I can certainly see how on a dark night in the middle of a busy shift the waiters would make the mistake that has been made here. “

A spokesperson for the Reserve Bank declined to comment on a particular case while a police review is underway, but said that posting anything that looks like a genuine bill or coin that looks like the real thing may violate the law.

The Safety Warehouse issued a statement and said that the cash drop had been a “misunderstood narrative” and that the event had been “unfairly characterized as a counterfeit money event.” They stressed that “the actual funds were given away as planned”, and there was “no intention to deprive, deceive or embarrass” anyone.