Judge calls cash counterfeiter Karen Chappell a menace, sentences her to nine months home detention

A couple's money-printing venture in a motel was sprung by the maid who found scrunched-up fake bank notes when she cleaned their room. Photo / 123RF

A judge has described a woman involved in a counterfeit cash-making operation as “self-indulgent” and said she is a menace while on drugs that the community could do without.

“This is the last time the court will offer you this leniency,” Judge Tony Snell told Karen Chappell as he sentenced her in the Nelson District Court today.

He said the next stop is prison.

Chappell and Thomas McCabe, her co-offender in the counterfeit operation, were caught after a cleaner found remnants of their forgery in the room of the Nelson motel they booked in April this year.

They used a guillotine, printer and laptop to manufacture counterfeit banknotes which formed the lead charges on which McCabe was sent to prison for just under two-and-a-half years.

The police summary of facts said the manufacture occurred over two nights, and when the pair checked out on April 22, the cleaner found screwed-up papers, opened them and discovered printed $20 counterfeit notes.

She also found bits of shredded paper that looked to be the colour of $50 bank notes, police said.

Judge Snell said the offending undermined our currency, and this was a serious example of it.

Chappell, who has 27 previous convictions, most of them drug-related, earlier admitted charges of possessing implements for making banknotes, and possession of LSD and stimulants, including valium and ketamine, in breach of the Medicines Act.

She also admitted charges of possessing Fantasy, using methamphetamine and receiving property worth over $1000.

Chappell was arrested following two searches of her Motueka property concerning the burglary of a jewellery store.

On May 7 the police found the equipment used in the forgery, plus a list of illicit drugs and six gold rings worth more than $1000.

She was arrested on May 12 during a subsequent search of her address when she admitted the drugs were hers and that the rings had been given to her by an associate.

Judge Snell said he accepted, but not entirely, Chappell’s claim she was “high” during the offending but the reality was she and her partner were involved in the making of counterfeit notes.

He also noted that Chappell had been given the benefit of home detention on drugs charges in 2020, and she had continued to offend, therefore the sentence of home detention given today would be her final time.

“You have had a lot of opportunities to get help and you have not done well,” Judge Snell said.

He described Chappell as a “menace” when she was on drugs and that the community “could do without people like you”.

“This was self-indulgent. It’s time you woke up and took on responsibility but you are getting a big break today,” Judge Snell said.

He added that he was obliged to impose a sentence that protected the community and also recognised the need for Chappell’s rehabilitation.

She was sentenced to nine months’ home detention on the forgery matter, against the four related forgery charges for which McCabe was sent to prison.

From a starting point of two years and six months in prison, Chappell was given a 25% discount for her guilty pleas and a further minor discount for her drug addiction issues which needed addressing.

On all charges, Chappell was given an end sentence of 18.5 months in prison, commuted to nine months of home detention to be served at a residential treatment programme. She was also subject to six months of post-detention conditions.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.