A FRAUDSTER tried to use a fake £20 note in a pub just days after he told police it had come from at a cashpoint.

Burnley Crown Court heard 29-year-old Simon Andrew Palmer had gone to Burnley Police Station with his father on August 31, 2018, and presented the receipt from the transaction and a number of fake notes.

Prosecuting, Fiona McNeill said Palmer had tried to use one of the £20 notes to buy a takeaway but discovered it wasn’t genuine.

At that point Palmer and his father were told to take the money back to the bank and the officer made a note of the serial numbers.

The following day Palmer’s father returned to the police station saying the bank hadn’t been terribly helpful and handed in 25 fake £20 notes.

On September 2, Palmer went to the Big Window pub in Burnley, handed over a fake £20 note to barman Dylan Manning asking for change for the fruit machine.

Ms McNeill said Mr Manning was aware of a Facebook warning about fake £20 notes being used in the area and cross-checked the serial number on the note Palmer had handed over.

Having identified the £20 as a fake Mr Manning reported Palmer to two police officers who were outside the pub.

Ms McNeill said: “He maintained he thought the note was genuine. He said he had bought a device to check fake notes.”

Palmer, formerly of Every Street, Burnley, but now of Nuttall Street, Accrington, pleaded guilty to tendering counterfeit currency.

Defending, Philip Holden said his client had ADHD and an underlying brain deficiency, partly due to an assault.

Mr Holden said: “Although he knows what he was doing was wrong he was not functioning at the level of a normal adult.”

Recorder Geoffrey Payne sentenced Palmer to nine months custody, suspended for 18 months, with 30 rehabilitation days and a four-month curfew.