NAHA — A Camp Kinser Marine was given a three-year suspended prison sentence Wednesday for forging and passing counterfeit $20 bills.
Pfc. Phillip C. Scott had pleaded guilty at an April hearing in Naha court to scanning 42 copies of a $20 note in his barracks room and passing eight of them at off-base businesses last November.
Scott testified in the last hearing that he hatched the counterfeiting idea to send money to his pregnant fiancee in the States and to buy a new uniform to attend a Marine Corps ball. A total of $160 worth of bogus bills were, however, spent on off-base services, including cab fares and bar tabs.
During sentencing, Chief Judge Hiroyuki Yoshii said the motive to get quick and easy money was self-centered. He said Scott’s prison term was suspended because he expressed remorse, had no prior conviction and has a fiancee and newborn baby to support.
