Ice cream parlour in Cowbridge scammed by thief who used fake £50 notes three times in same store

An ice cream parlour in Cowbridge has been "stung" by a thief, who used three fake £50 notes to buy ice cream.

Fablas, which has recently opened a branch in the town, say a man entered their store on three separate occasions on the same day to use the counterfeit notes.

The man is said to have fooled three different members of staff at the shop by purchasing ice cream worth £3.50, meaning he left with £46.50 change each time.

It means the business has been scammed of a total of £139.50.

Lauren Evans, a Managing Director of Fablas, told ITV News that members of staff had originally checked the Scottish notes with a pen checker and due to the notes being so sophisticated, they had passed the test of being real.

However it was only at the end of the day when the store was being cashed-up that staff investigated in more detail on spotting the signs of a fake note.

After an internet search they discovered that fake notes can be identified by scrunching them up with the print falling off.

Ms Evans says after finding out the notes were indeed fake, she wants other businesses to be made aware of the issue and be extra vigilant.

"We posted it on social media to make other business owners aware that this threat is very real and to make sure that people understand that these counterfeit notes are out there.

"We've taken them [the notes] across all our stores to show our staff this is what you need to look out for, although they're passing the pen test give them a scrunch, if the paint starts coming off them then please don't accept them."

Ms Evans says the businesses is now having to find more money to pay for equipment that can detect if a note is counterfeit or not.

"We are going to have to invest in these electric cash checkers and they plug in under a UV light. We will invest in one of those for each of our stores but they're around £60 each, that's four stores, that's £240 so that's a lot of money to fork out and we're down £139.50 already before we've even started.

"These counterfeits are just getting better and better and we just need to be more vigilant as a business and train our staff adequately to ensure they don't accept counterfeit note."

"We work unbelievably hard for the money that we do earn and times are tough, people don't have that disposable income anymore do they. So it's frustrating and really disheartening but we've just got to learn from it now and move on."

Ms Evans also says that she doesn't want to deter customers from using cash.

"We don't want to lose that clientele who prefer to use cash because there are still people out there and it's so frustrating when you go somewhere and they only accept card, we know all too well."

Fablas has been running as a business for seven years and Ms Evans says they're lucky that this is the first time they've been stung in this way with counterfeit notes.

Reacting to the incident South Wales Police have said: "on 30 July, we were contacted by a business in Cowbridge which reported being given three fake £50 notes on July 22.

"This appears to be an isolated report, however local business are encouraged to be vigilant when receiving goods and services for cash and to report incidents to us.

"Enquiries into the incident in Cowbridge are underway.”

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