ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997               TAG: 9703130069
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG

SIX ARRESTED FOR COUNTERFEIT $20, $100 BILLS

Five men and a juvenile were arrested in what police described as a small counterfeit operation in which $20 bills and $100 bills were produced with personal computer equipment.

Authorities believe about $320 in bogus bills was circulated by the suspects at a restaurant and a grocery store.

``We're reasonably confident that this thing is dead in the water,'' police investigator Dennis Lariviere said Tuesday after the arrests.

The bills were produced by using a computer scanner to transfer the images of real currency onto a monitor. Once saved, the images were printed onto paper using a standard ink-jet printer, Lariviere said.

He said the bills had a pink tint and weren't of great quality, ``but it was adequate.''

The suspects were charged with forging and uttering bank notes.

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

LENGTH: Short :   28 lines