• Police sources said the owners were using the money to con people.
• According to the Barclays Bank Kenya website, it cost almost Sh9,000 per year to hold a safe deposit box in 2016.
Image: COURTESY
Reports of fake currency being nabbed by police have been on the rise.
On Tuesday afternoon, Flying Squad officers intercepted Sh2 billion in fake currency in a personal safe deposit box at Barclays Bank, Queensway branch, in Nairobi.
Police sources said the owners were using the money to con people.
Six suspects were arrested in connection with the fake cash.
According to the Barclays Bank Kenya website, it cost almost Sh9,000 per year to hold a safe deposit box in 2016.
A Sh235 fee was also charged per visit to have access to the contents.
The bank's website does not provide 2019 prices.
In February, officers from the Special Crimes Prevention Unit seized Sh32 billion in fake currency, foreign and local, in a house in Ruiru.
Three suspects were arrested in the raid.
This was less than a month after five people were charged with conning a trader of Sh357,000 by using fake currency to buy gas cylinders.
The three women and two men were charged with swindling the trader of the amount after buying 100 gas cylinders using fake cash at Kibugu Market in Embu North subcounty.
The five; Baraza Njiru, Caroline Muthee, Doris Njoki, Daisy Wanja and Anthony Muriithi were presented before chief Magistrate Maxwell Gicheru where they were charged with five different counts.
In November 2018, two South Koreans pleaded guilty to charges of being in possession of Sh 700 million fake Pounds and Euros.
Kim Kyurak and Lee Ug were caught with the currency at a rented apartment in Kilimani on November 19.
They were arraigned before Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi.
The charges against them read that they were in possession of papers intended to resemble and pass as currency notes.
In September same year, iInvestigators from the National Intelligence Service pieced together a case linking a senior judge to a counterfeit currency syndicate.
A team from the Transnational Organised Crime Unit and the police arrested
Arafat Omar, alias Omar Rashi (a Kenyan), and Fidel Ako (a Ghanaian), who were also charged.
Omar and Ako were charged with various offences, including money laundering, but later released on Sh200,000 cash bail .
In March 2018, two foreigners were charged with being in possession of Sh112 billion fake dollars and Euros.
The two Mohammed Sani and Ousman Bako were subjected to a ten year imprisonment.
Following the recent arrest, the Star explored what it takes to have a safe deposit box in a bank.
Who has access to safe deposit box?
According to Financial Web, only the listed renters of a safe deposit box are granted access to its contents.
If an individual renter would like to list an agent for the box, he or she can do so, and the agent's name will be on file and recognised for access to the box in the case of an emergency.
Power of attorney alone will not provide an individual the right to access the box.
If the box's renter is suspected of a crime, including tax evasion, the box may be accessed by law enforcement with a warrant.
The warrant will be issued only if the legal staff has reasonable cause to open the box.
Image: MONICAH MWANGI
Holding cash in a safe deposit box
The website says one may place any cash that is rightfully and lawfully theirs in a safe deposit box.
The most important rule about putting cash in the box, though, pertains to the source of the cash.
Any cash obtained illegally or without payment of owed taxes should not go into a safe deposit box.
If a law enforcement agency has reason to suspect you have illegal cash in your safe deposit box, it can obtain a warrant and seize the contents of the box.
The government is permitted to seize a safe deposit box from any private party if it has reason to take the contents of that box.