DAMMAM, 21 November — Bahrain’s High Court has handed a five-year jail sentence to a Saudi who was charged with cheating a taxi driver with forged currency.
The court also fined the man with 1,000 Bahraini dinar (SR10,000). If he fails to pay the fine he will have to serve an additional two months in prison, and that period will be extended until he pays the fine.
The wads of forged currency found on him were confiscated by the order of the court.
The Saudi national, whose name was not released, went to Bahrain several times along King Fahd Causeway carrying with him counterfeit currency, Bahrain’s prosecution charged.
Forging currency is a crime punishable by several years in jail according to Clause 262 of Bahrain’s criminal law.
The Saudi was arrested by Bahraini police in Manama on May 8, 2000, while attempting to cheat a taxi driver with forged money. He confessed to the police that he had used the forged Saudi riyals to pay several other taxi drivers in Bahrain and the police found with him a large sum of forged SR50-denomination notes.
The criminal’s lawyer in Bahrain, Isa Al-Burashid, said the court would deduct the time his client had spent in police custody from his sentence.
