A 42-year-old man from Halaleva has been charged with making counterfeit currency after police seized $10 pa‘anga counterfeit notes amounting to $150 on March 19.

The Tonga Police Serious Crimes Unit arrested the man yesterday morning and seized the counterfeit notes together with a colour printer alleged to have been used to print out the notes.

The accused was remanded in custody to appear at the Nuku’alofa Magistrate’s Court.

“Counterfeit currency is currently in circulation and we are warning the public to be aware of it and to check all pa‘anga notes before accepting them,” the police stated. 

To help people identify genuine pa’anga notes from the counterfeits the National Reserve Bank of Tonga has prepared a pamphlet outlining the security features. The counterfeit notes lack the watermarks of the king (Tupou IV or George Tupou V)

Meanwhile, on separate occasions in January this year three $50 pa’anga counterfeit notes were discovered in Nuku'alofa after two retail shops received two of the counterfeit notes.

The National Reserve Bank stated today that it had receved counterfeit $50 (Tupou IV) notes  and $10 pa'anga (Tupou V) notes that lacked watermarks and security threads embedded in the notes

“The public is advised to check all notes, particularly the $50 note, before accepting them. Counterfeit notes  carry zero value and will not be accepted by the banks or the Reserve Bank,” the NRBT stated .