Do you notice anything about this €20 note found in Offaly?

A TRAVELLER LGBT rights campaigner was cleared of having counterfeit money when a judge examined a €20 note and decided it could not be passed off as genuine.

Darren Collins, a 27-year-old Tullamore native with an address at Grove Park, Rathmines, Dublin 6, pleaded not guilty to having custody or control of counterfeit currency notes on July 1, 2020 at a house on Chancery Park Road, Tullamore.

Tullamore District Court was told by Garda Tom Dunne that four counterfeit €20 notes were found during a drugs search in a room used by Darren Collins at that house.

One of the notes was found in one drawer and the other three were on a floor underneath the bottom drawer.

Garda Dunne gave evidence of a cautioned statement made by Mr Collins the following September in which the accused said the notes had been there for three-and-a-half years after he found them on a footpath at Hophill estate.

He had no intention of using them and he would be “terrified” to use them because he saw they were fake and threw them into the bedside locker.

Garda Dunne handed one of the notes to Judge Andrew Cody for examination.

Replying to defending solicitor Donal Farrelly, Garda Dunne agreed they were not good counterfeit notes and added that Daniel Collins was not the target of the drugs search.

There was no suspicion the man was involved in any drugs activity and he had no previous convictions for any offences.

Garda Dunne agreed with Mr Farrelly that the notes may have been there for a period of time and added that there was a bit of a problem at the time with counterfeit notes being circulated and handed into shops by teenagers.

In his own evidence Mr Collins said he was a long-term LGBT activist involved in mental health work specifically with Traveller men.

He said there were arranged marriages in the community and some men were struggling with their sexuality and could not identify themselves and that was leading to their mental health deteriorating and to suicide as the next step.

Mr Collins said his role as a suicide survivor was to prevent that happening in the Traveller community and he had participated in conferences around mental health in Ireland, and conducted his work through the Council of Europe and the HSE.

He had moved to Dublin for a better lifestyle and the prosecution had been hanging over his head for the last two-and-a-half years.

Mr Collins outlined how he had been working a late night shift in Eddie Rocket's and when he finished he was walking home close to the roundabout and noticed a folded €20 note on the ground (pictured below) and then realised there were four of them.

When he got home he threw them into his “junk drawer” and then when the gardai arrived at eight o'clock one morning and he was pulled out of bed and the notes were found he was shocked.

He said there were personal things in that locker that he would have hidden from his family as a gay man.

Cross-examined by Sergeant James O'Sullivan, Mr Collins said he had not thrown the notes away and added that he did not know it was an offence to knowingly have counterfeit money.

Judge Cody said Mr Collins was in possession of the notes but the question was, did that amount to counterfeit currency.

To be counterfeit it must be something that is capable of being passed off as genuine currency but the note he examined had the word “copy” written on the back of it (see main picture above) and would not be accepted in a shop.

He therefore dismissed the charge and commended Mr Collins for the good work he was doing.

“Thank you so much, I appreciate that. Have a lovely day,” replied Mr Collins.

As Mr Collins left the courtroom Judge Cody remarked: “There is one happy man!”