Perhaps it was something about their bone structures. Or maybe it was their penchant for hats.

But, whatever the similarities, it seems fraudsters have got themselves confused between the Queen... and popstar Boy George.

Staff at a Gravesend town centre shop were astonished to discover a fake £20 note had an image of the flamboyant former Culture Club singer on its watermark instead of the monarch.

Ryman’s stationers, in St George’s Centre, took the mixed-up forgery on Saturday afternoon.

But it was not until they tried to cash it at the bank on Monday that they realised it was a phoney – and included a picture of George, who had hits with Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want To Hurt Me in the 1980s.

A staff member at the store said: "We took the note on Saturday afternoon, but we didn’t realise it was a fake until I took it to the bank on Monday.

"The cashier held it up to the light and then spotted that Boy George’s face was on it instead of the Queen’s."

She added: "I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it – we’ve certainly had nothing like it before."

The singer – real name George O’Dowd – is currently serving a 15-month jail sentence for falsely imprisoning and beating a male escort.