The case relates to an incident in March when a man who turned up at a Browns Plains kebab-store and offered to buy the store from the owner with a story about a machine that could legitimately make money.

Later that month the unnamed man and the owner met again at another business at Browns Plains. At the time he was carrying a safe and black wooden box with a power cord.

He produced two bundles of what he claimed was $100,000 in cash and put them inside the box. He then asked the business owner for $50,000 to add to the box for duplication, to which the owner refused.

Police said the man became angry, transferred the two bundles from the box to safe, and said he would be in contact the following day before leaving.

“When the owner could not get hold of the man the following day, he forced open the safe and found only photocopies of cash,” Police said.

About 10 businesses in the Logan area were approached by the man. One, at Slacks Creek, he offered to buy the store from the owner and once again said he could legitimately duplicate money with a machine.

“The owner withdrew $20,000 from his bank account and, on March 24, gave the cash to the man who ran the bundle through a large black box with a power cord, along with a bundle of what looked to be cash that he had provided,” Police said.

The box made a humming noise as this occurred. After the process finished, the man transferred the two bundles of money into a safe. He kept the key and the business-owner kept the safe.

The following day to businessowner tried to contact the man and when that failed he forcec open the safe where he located two bundles of counterfeit notes.

Police said the man had approached at least ten different business in the Logan district citing the same story during the month of March and was travelling in a white Toyota Camry sedan.