A toy €100 note is being treated as counterfeit currency, after it was used to buy a sandwich in Co Down.

Police say the note - which carries an Early Learning Centre logo - was accepted at a shop in Newry.

Officers were called in to investigate because the shop owner was left out of pocket.

The PSNI have advised businesses to check all notes.

PSNI Newry and Mourne issued the following advice in a statement on their Facebook page.

"If you work in a cash handling job please take 5 seconds to check all notes you are accepting, the first check would be look at the thing!".

"The second would be to swipe a counterfeit detector pen across it, you can buy these online for pennies. Then consider the feel of the note."

"Clearly no checks were done on this note and that business is now 100 Euro down plus the value of the goods it was used to 'pay' for!", it added.