A 18-year-old caught out after he handed over three fake £20 notes at his local shop in the Lake District has been spared immediate custody.
Joshua Roelants, now 19, committed the crime in Windermere on May 22 last year, asking for £54-worth of items before handing over the dodgy dosh.
Prosecutor Brendan Burke told Carlisle Crown Court, Roelants mischievously invited the shopkeeper to keep the change.
The store owner quickly deduced the notes were crude forgeries with no raised print or embossing, made on the wrong paper with no 3D effect on the metallic foil running through; and no see-through window.
Fifty more fake £20 notes were found inside a coat as Roelants was arrested days later.
Roelants, of Park Avenue, Windermere, later admitted charges of both passing and having custody or control over counterfeit currency.
The shopkeeper provided an impact statement.
Mr Burke told the court: “He says he is shocked and saddened that the defendant decided to defraud him having been a regular customer.”
Roelants was only 18 at the time and had shown a lack of maturity, said his lawyer, Anthony Parkinson.
More recently, however, he had distanced himself from negative associates and held down a full-time job as a Lakes hotel kitchen porter, working long shifts.
“He is a young man who has tried in recent times to put proper steps in place to better himself to move on from the life he has lived in the last few years,” said Mr Parkinson.
Judge Nicholas Barker suspended nine months’ detention for 18 months.
Roelants must complete a rehabilitation requirement, 100 hours’ unpaid work and pay a £250 fine.
“Given the good work you have done, the fact you are in employment, settled and making improvements in your life: that is something this court should not seek to unsettle,” the judge told him.
