Bargain Hunt viewers were left raging over a "hopeless" mistake made by expert Raj Bisram.
The BBC favourite convinced two contestants they were purchasing a real Mouseman chopping board for £90 in the episode, which aired on February 28. But in a shocking twist, the item was later revealed to be a fake — leaving the hapless duo with nothing to show for their efforts.
The blunder happened when Raj spotted the wooden item in an antique store and claimed it could fetch between £50 to £70 at auction. However, when the seller offered a "special price" of £130, reports The Express.
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Raj said: "There would be no profit on that. It's a nice thing but I would go to £100, but I can't go any lower than that, so we'll come back to it." Eventually, the pair did head back to buy what they believed was a Mouseman chopping board.
Later on in the show, Christina Trevanion spoke to an auctioneer about the product. The 42-year-old claimed that it was "controversial". He said: "This has been on my mind about what I can say about this. The mouse has definitely been stuck on."
He added that if the mouse had been "carved" then we would have had no doubts that it was a Mouseman item. "But if you look at it you can see it doesn't have the quality," he explained.
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At the auction hall, the contestants celebrated after making £10 profit on a wooden spoon before tragedy struck - they'd realised they'd brought a dupe Robert Thompson item to the hall. Christina told the red team about their chopping board: "Now, your little chopping board, the auctioneers have catalogued it as Mouseman style.
"They have, unfortunately, seen another couple of examples that's just been stuck on, so probably not by Mouseman himself."
Raj said he was partly to blame: "I have to take some of the blame because I didn't check that it was stuck on I've bought so many Mouseman pieces over the years and I've never needed to check."
The chopping board sold for £25 at the auction. The team called it a "spectacular loss" and Raj said it "could've been worse".
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After Raj owned up to his mistake, Bargain Hunt fans shared their thoughts online - with many branding him a "liability". A viewer tweeted: "Hopeless Raj should have noticed."
Another person said: "Raj should be sacked." A third mentioned that valuing antiques is Raj's "only job" and another added: "That Raj is a liability."
Meanwhile, a fourth user wrote: "How could an expert fail notice that isn't a Mouseman and you could buy one on a town market for £5?."