Two men from Cameroon were charged in court today with conspiring to defraud a man through a method know as the black-money scam.

Marcelin Kamwa, 37, and Jean Jacques Tientcheu, 40, pleaded not guilty to committing the crime.

Police Inspector Jonathan Ferris, prosecuting, said that on Friday evening he was informed by a man that the two accused had approached him to buy a car - a Hummer 4x4 - for €50,000 in cash covered in black iodine-based dye.

The following day Insp Ferris and his colleagues monitored the two men. They drove to an area in Qui Si Sana where they told the victim how to wash off the black dye using a vitamin C solution and demonstrated it on a genuine €50 note.

Yesterday morning the victim told the police that the deal was to be concluded and, at 9.30am, the police went to the Astra Hotel. In the room occupied by the two men they found the false money being prepared.

The men were remanded in police custody.
Lawyer Anthony Stellini represented the accused.