Scots College students allegedly use counterfeit cash at Double Bay shops

WATCH VIDEO: Teachers from one of Sydney’s most exclusive schools ‘tried to appease’ a shopkeeper after students allegedly used counterfeit cash to swindle him out of $100.

Teachers from one of Sydney’s most exclusive schools ‘tried to appease’ a shopkeeper after students allegedly used counterfeit cash to swindle him out of $100.

Despite initially getting away with the alleged crime at Double Bay Newsagency, one student from the $40,000 a year Scots College returned just two days later in a bid to try the same scam again.

And when the store manager contacted the school, he claimed teachers from Scots turned up at the shop and tried to downplay the incident.

Video of the original fraud shows three students at the counter of the newsagency as one buys a pen. The footage shows a second student in a blue shirt asking to swap a wad of four $50 notes for two $100 notes and appears nervous as he fumbles in his wallet for the cash.

The student reaches for the notes. Picture: YouTube

Store manager Jim Cho said: “He gave over a lot of $50 notes and put the two fakes with two real ones all together.”

Mr Cho’s son served the boys on the Sunday and Mr Cho realised he had been duped when he came into the shop the following day.

It takes the student a while before he finally gets the money out of the wallet. Picture: YouTube

“It was too obvious, (the counterfeit note) was shorter and looked fake,” he said.

Another student, who Mr Cho believes was from the original group returned two days later to get even more money out of the business.

“This time it was very unprofessional and too obvious. I couldn’t believe they came back again,” he said.

He confronted him about the fake notes and took them from him and the boy immediately burst into tears. “He cried as one of his friends waited outside,” he said. “We had a very nice customer who asked if we could leave the kid alone … What can you do?”

The youth hands over notes, including allegedly counterfeit $50 notes.

Mr Cho then did some detective work of his own, printing out photos of the suspects and posting CCTV footage on YouTube. He soon had a strong lead the students were from the exclusive school not far away.

After contacting the school, he claimed teachers from Scots turned up at the shop and tried to downplay the incident but Mr Cho is adamant he will be pressing charges.

Double Bay Newsagency, which uploaded the CCTV footage to YouTube with a warning to fellow businesses to beware of fake cash. Picture: William Tyson

In a statement, Scots College principal Ian Lambert said of the original incident “the business owner has been contacted and repaid in full”.

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Posters made by the newsagency.

A normal $50 note (top) compared with one of the allegedly fake notes, which appears shorter.

“The college is co-operating with NSW Police and will continue counselling the student and working with his parents until the incident is fully resolved,” he said.

“The college takes the situation extremely seriously and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken once the full facts have been determined.”