A TEENAGE trickster used counterfeit cash from 'the movies' to pay for a car and a mobile phone so he could sell them on to make 'real money.'

Ethie Parry of North End, Pinvin, between Worcester and Pershore, used the fake £50 notes which had printed on them 'movie use only' to pay for the items, running away after snatching a phone from one victim and chucking the counterfeit notes through the victim's car window.

The 18-year-old admitted two charges of passing as genuine a thing knowing it was counterfeit of a currency note under the Forging and Counterfeiting Act 1981 when he appeared before magistrates in Worcester on Thursday.

Worcester News:

GUILTY: Ethie Parry used fake cash from movie sets to pay for a car and phone which he sold on for real money.

 

Parry committed one offence on October 8 last year and the other on October 18 last year in Pershore.

Owen Beale, prosecuting, said Parry used £200 of the fake notes to pay for a Ford car on October 8 and it was the man's daughter who later spotted they were counterfeit notes. When he visited what he believed was the defendant's address nobody knew him there or next door, 'protesting no knowledge of the defendant'.

Worcester News:

CROWN: The next date in Parry's diary is for Worcester Crown Court. Magistrates said it was too serious for them to deal with.

 

On October 18, Parry who was using the name 'Ethie Smith' responded to an advert for the sale of a mobile phone from Paul Knight, later showing him the phone through the open window of his car when the defendant arrived to buy it.

"The defendant dropped the money through the open window of the car and literally snatched the phone and started running off" said Mr Beale.

When they looked at the money the couple who were selling the phone realised it was not genuine.

"Although Mr Knight ran after the defendant and gave chase but lost him" said Mr Beale. They had intended to sell the phone to get money to buy Christmas presents for the children.

The matter was reported to the police who traced the defendant.

Mr Beale said in interview Parry told officers 'he knew full well the money he was using wasn't real and he had used it with the intention of buying relatively low value items to sell on and, in the sale, he would make real money'. He sold the car for £170 and the phone for £80.

He added: "It doesn't matter whether they were originally produced for the theatre or 'genuine counterfeit'. What he was trying to do was pass them off as the real deal."

Magistrates declined jurisdiction for the case. Parry will next appear at Worcester Crown Court on April 29. In the meantime he was granted unconditional bail.