A 45-year-old unemployed man who admitted ripping off a numbers house by gambling with counterfeit money could be spared jail if he pays a fine and repays the money he stole.
Mario Kikivarakis pleaded guilty to possession of 10 forged U.S. $100 bills and fraud by false pretenses at his arraignment before Magistrate Samuel McKinney.
According to the prosecutor, Sergeant 1406 Philip Davis, Cindy Williams, the operations manager at the FML Group of Companies, said it was discovered that a total of $900 in counterfeit money had been included in the drops from the Nassau Village store on three successive days.
After identifying Kikivarakis as the crooked customer, Williams instructed the store to be on the lookout for him.
About an hour after Williams gave her directive, Kikivarakis tried to deposit another fake U.S. $100 note to his account. The staff did not accept it, but attempts to stall him failed.
But staff took note of his license plate number and his clothing and monitored his account activity.
Kikivarakis would deposit the fake money on his account and then gamble the money out.
In his plea in mitigation, attorney Devard Francis said that Kikivarakis had no previous convictions and had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
Francis joked that Craig Flowers, owner of FML, didn't need the money.
Kikivarakis was fined $4,500 to avoid spending a year in prison. He was also ordered to repay the $900 to that he gambled away to avoid spending six months in prison.
The magistrate gave him time to pay, but ordered Kikivarakis to pay at least $3,000 before he is released.
He returns to court on May 15 for a status hearing.

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