Staff at a village pub have warned others to check for fake money after a man attempted to pay for a drink with a counterfeit note.

The White Horse in Exning, near Newmarket, reported the incident to police after the man tried to use a false £50 note to pay for two soft drinks.

Alex Welford, who works behind the bar at the Church Street boozer, said she instantly realised something was off before he gave her the money.

She said: “A young lad came in while I was working by the fridge, and he said ‘can you move out the way’ so he could see the drinks.

“Generally, when people walk into a pub they don’t do that, they say ‘do you have this or that’.

“It seems quite trivial but when you’ve worked in the industry for a while you notice these little things.

“He wouldn’t make eye contact the entire time and he ordered two J2Os. Then he pulled out the £50 note, and I could tell straight away it wasn’t real.

“One of the others at the bar also clocked it and shook her head at me.”

Ms Welford added: “The white part of the note was double the size. This is the first time it’s happened for quite some time.

“Because I knew it was fake I asked for something smaller, and he said he would go to his van for some change."

She added: “When he went out to his ‘van’ he actually went out to a Volkswagen Golf. So, we have notified two other pubs in the village about it.”

Suffolk police has said anyone with any information related to the incident is being asked to contact officers, quoting crime reference number 37/64421/24.