A prankster convinced someone selling a rare £5 note to burn a hole in it by putting it into the microwave to 'smooth it out' after he was abusive to a woman online.

Shaun Munro saw that the seller had called a woman a 'fat cow' when she inquired about the note, with a rare AB01 serial number, on a public buy and sell group.

Mr Munro, 31, decided to get his revenge and offered to pay up to £1,500 for the note, as long as it was in mint condition.

Prankster Shaun Munro (left) convinced someone selling a rare £5 note to burn a hole in it (right) by putting it into the microwave to 'smooth it out' after he was abusive to a woman

He asked the seller to flatten the plastic note using an iron before eventually convincing him to wrap the money in tissue and microwave it.

The note's furious owner then sent Shaun a picture of the note with a hole in it, and ranted: 'The note is ruined.'

Mr Munro, from Llanarmon-yn-Ial, north Wales, said: 'I thought he was out of order so I gave him a taste of his own medicine. I never thought he'd actually go along with it.

'He put it up for sale in one of the buy-and-sell groups I'm in claiming that it was worth a lot because of its serial number.

'But every time a certain woman came on and enquired about it, he would give her all sorts of abuse. He even called her a fat cow.

'The worst thing you can do is say something horrible to a woman about her appearance. I thought he was a bit of an idiot.

Mr Munro posed as someone wanting to buy the note, offering the seller £1,000 for it but saying he was 'concerned about the folds'

IS YOUR FIVER WORTH THOUSANDS? The new plastic £5 notes have been selling for hundreds or even thousands since they were introduced in September. Those with the early AA01 serial numbers, meaning they were in the first million produced, have been selling on online auction site eBay for up to £800. Notes with the AK47 number have also become valuable, with one selling for £80,000 but the seller, Gareth Wright, was left empty-handed when the buyer refused to pay because he was waiting for 'a shipment of cocaine', he claimed. There are also four £5 notes in the country believed to be worth £50,000, engraved with an image of Jane Austen and a quote. The images on the notes were created by specialist micro-engraver Graham Short, who travelled to different locations in the UK to spend them. Another person, Gail Meikle, also managed to sell a note with a slight misprint for £1,699. Coins can make money too, with a special-edition WWF design released in 2011 with the famous panda logo and 50 other animals, regularly selling for more than £200. Advertisement

'I expected him to realise I was joking when I asked him to get the iron out but he was going along with it.

'Then he said he didn't have an iron - what sort of person doesn't have an iron? So I told him the microwave would do the same job getting the creases out and he did that instead.

'I was sitting on my sofa p*****g myself basically. I didn't really feel bad about it at all because he was being abusive to this woman.'

Mr Munro made his initial enquiry about the note - which the seller claimed was worth more because of its AB01 serial number - on New Year's Day.

He then claimed he had contacts in Mayfair who were willing to send a courier to collect the note within 24 hours.

But, he continued, they had some concerns about the flatness of the note, and so he proposed a series of methods to smooth it out.

After initial reservations, the seller agrees to 'heat press' the note, but cannot locate an iron and proceeds with putting it in a microwave for 10 seconds.

Mr Munro, who owns a masonry business, said: 'I could believe it when he sent me the picture back. There were three holes in the note and part of it had melted.

After a long exchange asking the seller to flatten the note, Mr Munro convinced him to put it in the microwave. After ten seconds, there was a black hole in it (right)

Mr Munro (pictured), who owns a masonry business, said: 'I could believe it when he sent me the picture back. There were three holes in the note and part of it had melted

'I actually did some research to make sure the note wasn't worth a fortune - that way I knew I wouldn't owe him more than a fiver if he did burn it.

'New Year's Day was one of my only days off so I was just fixing some bits in the garage and lying about on the sofa having a laugh to pass the time.

'I was messaging him for about four hours. My initial plan was to pretend to pay him with Monopoly money but I realised I could have a bit of fun with him.