A Nigerian lady in France, Elizabeth Henry, has said she is being investigated, and risks jail term over fake Euro notes paid into her account by her sister.
The Euro notes, according to her, were issued to her sister by the Maitama branch of Standard Chartered Bank on Tuesday 17 August 2021.
Elizabeth sister, Mary Henry, had taken to social media on the 18 of September, disclosing that she applied for a €3,000 Personal Travel Allowances (PTA) at the Standard Chartered Bank, Maitama, Abuja, on August 17, 2021, to finance her study at the University of Burgundy, France. Mary, who only gave her middle name, was admitted to the school in April 2021 to study international management and business studies.
But later got to know when she deposited the amount to her sister account that two out of the six notes issued to her by the Maitama Branch of Standard Chartered Bank were fake. KNews learnt that the issue already affected her studies and caused her documentation to suffer delay.
Elizabeth, who further spoke on behalf of Mary in a WhatsApp interview with The ICIR said the money was paid to her account as Mary had no bank account in France.
According to her, when Mary got to France, she deposited the entire notes to an account owned by her but later learnt on the 17 of September that two €500 bills out of the €3,000 she had deposited were fake and that the bank had deducted €1,000 from her account.
She said, “So my sister arrived in France on the 18th of August for her masters. She came with 3000 euros notes (500×6) because she doesn’t have French Bank Account yet, she asked me to pay the money into my account so she could pay for some fees online for school, we paid in the money and only 2000 euros was credited. So I was pissed and called my banker to ask why only 2000 euros was deposited and she said she was going to ask the service in charge of counting money.”
“she got back to me few hours and told me that they found out that 2 of the note I deposited were fake and the money was sent immediately to BANK OF FRANCE (it’s the equivalent of CBN in Nigeria) they authenticated the notes and confirmed that it was fake. They documented the note and sent me 2 attachments (1 for each note) with the serial number of the note etc. The money was not given back to me because they don’t want it circulating in France.”
She also told reporters that the case had been handed over to the Police for investigation, and her sister risked being blacklisted by the Bank of France, and sent to jail.
“They will hand over the case to the police to investigate because I told my banker that the money was bought as PTA from a reputable bank in Nigeria. Because of the case, I risk being blacklisted by the Bank of France, and my account might be closed. Not to talk about possible jail term.”
According to the Manager of Standard Chartered Bank Maitama branch, Jumoke Adewoye, but she did not answer her calls. Also, she has not responded to the message sent to her via SMS and Whatsapp. Several calls made to the bank headquarters in Lagos did not go through.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Bank, in reaction to Mary’s allegation posted on Facebook, said the bank is investigating Mary’s claim about the alleged fake Euro notes issued to her.
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