Two men were charged with conspiring to defraud a man by giving him fake cash in exchange for his Hummer four-wheel drive through a “black-money scam”.

Marcelin Kamwa, 37, and Jean Jacques Tientcheu, 40, both from Cameroon, pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras yesterday.

Police inspector Jonathan Ferris, prosecuting, said that on Friday evening he was informed by a man that two men approached him to exchange his Hummer for €50,000 in cash. However, they told him that the cash would be covered in black iodine-based dye that could be washed off.

The cash would be covered in black iodine-based dye that could be washed off

The following day Mr Ferris and his colleagues monitored the whereabouts of the two men. The pair drove to an area in Qui-Si-Sana, Sliema, where they informed the victim how to wash off the black dye using a vitamin C solution and demonstrated it on a genuine €50 note.

On Sunday morning, the victim told police the deal was to be concluded and, at 9.30am, officers went to the Astra Hotel in Sliema. 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.