A Tennessee man who downloaded an image of a $100 bill from the internet, printed himself some instant cash and proceeded directly to a Nashville strip joint was cuffed after suspicious staff called in the cops, AP reports.

Damon Armagost, of Smyrna, allegedly splashed $600 in fake currency at the Deja Vu club on 16 April. When the police arrived, he initially told them he'd acquired the money "when he sold gold coins for $1,400 to an unidentified person".

However, US secret service operatives subsequently discovered that counterfeit bills with the same serial number had popped up in other parts of the country, and a member of Armagost's family told agents he'd had an image of a $100 bill on his home computer.

The master criminal then coughed to having "downloaded the image from the internet and printed 14 of the bills". Last Friday he pleaded guilty to "manufacturing and passing counterfeit currency", and will be sentenced on 5 November. ®

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