Russian authorities have detained a man who built a fake frontier post in the woods near the country’s border with Finland and promised migrant workers he could smuggle them into the European Union.

The man erected mock border posts and charged four men from south Asia more than $10,000 to take them to EU member Finland, the Russian border guard service said on Wednesday.

“The man never planned to carry out his promises,” Interfax news agency said.

Authorities did not specify the nationalities of the would-be migrants involved in the incident, which took place on Thursday last week.

He installed sham fence posts purportedly marking the state border between Russia and Finland and took the group on a circuitous route in the Vyborg region by car and on foot, at one point marching around a lake with an inflatable boat, “just in case”. All five were later detained.

Video footage showed men standing in the darkness among fir trees, their hands up in the air.

On Wednesday, a court in Saint Petersburg fined the migrants and ordered their deportation.

The man behind the smuggling scheme was from central Asia and could be charged with fraud, according to media reports.

Russia shares borders with a number of EU countries and many people seeking a better life in Europe pass through Russia.