Public cashes in on phoney notes slip-up

A firm which produces fake money for American film studios was today ordered to hand over its phoney cash after people successfully spent it.

The American Secret Service, which enforces anti-forgery laws, ordered Independent Studio Services to stop printing the cash and get back all the notes it produced so they could be destroyed.

The move comes after some of the cash got into the hands of the general public after $1bn dollars (£670m) was blown up during a film shoot in Las Vegas.

Some of the notes fluttered off the set and were spent in the gambling town.

Assistant Special Agent Chuck Ortman said: ‘‘The product they were producing was just too close to genuine. Notes were successfully passed.’’

A total of 19 notes had been found to have been successfully passed in Los Angeles and Las Vegas after a Secret Service investigation.