Shopkeepers and pub bosses are being warned to beware of fake £20 notes.

The counterfeit notes are believed to have been brought into circulation by gangs of travellers from Ireland, teaming up with Scottish drug dealers.

Pub landlady Sandra Wilson, of the Dun Cow at Burnmoor, near Chester-le-Street, has found three notes in her takings and told the police.

She said: "I've lost £60. There's nothing I can do about it but at least I can warn other people these notes are going around."

The notes are both English and Scottish and many of the Scottish notes bearing the number DM483394.