A Victorian couple has been jailed for printing money and using it at a petrol station after getting the idea from TikTok.
Craig Batten, 45, and his partner, 29-year-old Keanna Morrison, were sentenced in the Mount Gambier Magistrates Court to five months behind bars for making $750 in cash and using a $100 note at a petrol station in Mount Gambier, South Australia, in January.
Batten told the writer of a pre-sentencing report that he had came up after watching a video on social media.
“He stated that he had seen a TikTok video of someone photocopying cash notes and he decided to try it as it looked very easy,” Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos told the court.
She said Morrison’s reason for the offending was similar.
“She stated … the counterfeit money was initially used as a prop in video contents that they were making, and they also needed to fill up the car with petrol and decided to pay with the counterfeit money knowing that it was not actually money,” Magistrate Kossiavelos said.
A staff member at the petrol station noticed the crime after the pair had left. (ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert)
Lengthy criminal history
Batten and Morrison admitted to using a fake $100 note at the OTR petrol station on Penola Road in Mount Gambier on January 2 to buy $34 in fuel.
They were arrested at a local shopping centre on January 4.
Police found a laptop, a printer and other equipment used to create the clear windows on bank notes and $650 in unfinished $50 and $100 notes inside their vehicle.
Magistrate Kossiavelos said the crime was “serious” but that most counterfeiting cases involved much more sophisticated operations that created larger amounts of fake money.
But she said Batten had “one of the worst histories” of offending she had ever seen, which involved dozens of offences dating back to 1999.
Batten and Morrison had long criminal histories, the court heard. (ABC South East SA: Bec Whetham)
Morrison was on a community corrections order from Victoria at the time of the offending for charges including fraud and burglary.
She was not permitted to travel interstate.
Magistrate Kossiavelos sentenced both to two months in jail for using the fake $100 note and three months for making the notes.
Batten was also sentenced to an additional three months and two weeks behind bars for driving offences, including for the 17th time he had been caught driving while disqualified.
Batten and Morrison are wanted in Victoria and Batten’s alleged offences in that state include counterfeiting money.
The pair mouthed “I love you” and blew kisses at each other through the audio-visual link from their separate cells to the courtroom.
