A Jewish man has been left distraught after multiple $50 notes vandalised with anti-Semitic slurs have been dispensed from a Sydney ATM.
The cash which had been scrawled on with black permanent marker was obtained by three different customers – six notes in total – at the North Bondi Suncorp ATM inside the Ampol Foodary in the lead up to Christmas.
The notes had been graffitied with the words ‘F*** Jews’ and a swastika drawn on the forehead of Indigenous leader David Unaipon whose image appears on the note.
Pictures of the vandalised notes were shared online with Aussies quickly accusing them of being ‘fake’ and ‘staged’, however the authenticity was later verified.
NSW Police were called to the Ampol Foodary on December 12 after the first lot of vandalised notes were dispensed and reported to employees.
The next day a Jewish man, who asked to be referred to by his first name Ari, also received a marked note and informed the attendant. He said the worker assumed he was complaining about the banknote and not the antisemitic content.
Ari was later visited by police who suggested he take the notes to Suncorp Bank who might be able to ‘trace the notes and work out a bit more’.
‘They acknowledged that it’s completely unacceptable, but that they couldn’t do much more,’ he told 7News.
Three different customers were dispensed vandalised $50 notes with anti-Jewish graffiti in Sydney (pictured) including a swastika and the words ‘f*** Jews’
Suncorp said the ATM (pictured) was not maintained by them but by Armaguard, who said it was very unlikely the notes were sent out from their facility that way.
Police are investigating three incidents of ‘offensive handwritten words and images’ on banknotes on December 12, 13 and 14.
Alex Ryvchin, the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, slammed the vandalism.
‘The hateful people in our society are finding new ways to express their prejudice and their loathing,’ he said.
While the Reserve Bank can pull damaged notes from circulation and replace it with fresh currency, the cash needs to be handed in by staff or customers who find it.
In Australia it is a criminal offence to damage official currency.
Suncorp Bank said they do not stock the particular ATM where the notes were found. The ATM is stocked by Armaguard, which said it was unlikely the notes were sent out from their facility that way.
‘Our cash processing machines are well maintained, regularly calibrated and tested. Our high-speed fitness sorting machines are the same as used by central banks globally to process and fitness sort returned banknotes,’ Mr Caulfield said.
‘Therefore, the risk that a damaged banknote is not identified by our machines, and recirculated back into the community, is extremely low.
It comes as anti-Semitic graffiti appeared in northwest Sydney on Tuesday morning
It came just one day after a white car was found spray painted with the words ‘F**k the Jews’ on Henry Street in Sydney’s Queens Park on Monday morning (pictured)
‘The vast majority of damaged banknotes in circulation exist because they are recycling within the community and not making their way to a cash centre for processing and fitness sorting.’
It comes as anti-Semitic graffiti appeared in a suburb of northwest Sydney on Tuesday.
The message ‘die Israel die, f**king monsters‘ was spray-painted on a wall on Railway Road in Meadowbank overnight.
It comes one day after a white car was found spray painted with the words ‘F**k the Jews’ on Henry Street in Queens Park on Monday morning.
Sydney’s eastern suburbs saw cars vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti while a vehicle was set alight in November last year.
In December, multiple cars and buildings in Sydney’s east were again covered with anti-Israel slogans, including ‘kill Israel’ and ‘death 2 Israel’ with another car torched.
