Man who set up a fake police station in China exposed after blackmailing girlfriend with secret sex tape

The man who called himself 'Inspector Lei' even had a siren fitted on his car

Chinese police were confronted with a familiar sight when they descended on the fraudster's home (AFP/Getty Images)

A man from China who set up a fake police station – complete with an interrogation room – to defraud people by charging them for his “services” was rumbled after blackmailing his girlfriend with a secret sex tape he had made.

The man, who liked to be known as Inspector Lei, launched his money-making venture in 2013 after meeting his girlfriend a year earlier when he had posed as an army captain, the South China Morning Post reports.

But last week his cover was blown when real police officers descended on his home, in the city of Wuhan, in search of the tape.

Chinese police were confronted with a familiar sight as they found themselves in a carefully-constructed reception room of a police station.

Photos published in local media also showed an official-looking interrogation room featuring a Chinese flag and a bust of Chairman Mao, as well as a stool for Lei’s victims, with a tripod positioned towards it.

Police officers found several police outfits, handcuffs, stun guns, forged documents, a GPS tracking device and a small surveillance camera which Lei had collected, it is reported.

He even had a siren fitted to his car.

Police aptly found a copy of an 18th Century Chinese work, The Story of the Stone, which begins in a place called the Land of Illusion.

“With his disguise he was very deceptive,” policeman Tang Hui was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

It is understood that Lei sold falsified documents and warrants from his home for two years.

When he had met his girlfriend three years ago, the con artist convinced her he was an army captain by wearing military uniform and driving a car with a siren, reports the South Morning China Post.

A year later, the pair were a couple, with Lei telling the unsuspecting woman he had become a policeman.

Friends of the impersonator tried to warn her that he was “not reliable”.

One friend told her “he always flirts with us online and is a total scoundrel”, according to Chutian Metropolis Daily newspaper.

In April, the woman’s suspicions grew and she said he wanted to leave him.

Lei is reported to have demanded 80,000 yuan from her as a break-up fee for having taken such good care of her during their relationship.

When she refused to pay up, he showed her a video of them having sex and threatened to publicise it.

The woman contacted Chinese police, and, for Lei, the game was up.