Macau’s Court of Second Instance has set a new precedent, by absolving an individual who attempted to exchange fake Hong Kong Dollar bills for gaming chips.
A lower court had previously accused the individual of attempted embezzlement, after he tried to exchange a ‘wad of notes at face value of HK$1,000’ for gaming chips.
The notes all carried a printed warning that they were each a ‘test specimen’.
The notes were immediately identified as being fake and were rejected by a cage employee.
For the alleged crime, the individual was given an effective prison sentence of one year.
But, after appealing the sentencing, the higher court found that ‘any adult person with the capacity to read those words printed on the notes would know that those notes are not real’.
The court ruled that this ‘demonstrated the ineptitude of the method applied’ by the alleged embezzler, canceling out his intention to commit a criminal act.
The court has since revoked his sentence.
