Monmouth’s Liberal Democrat election candidate Alison Willott has reported to the police an apparent attempt to discredit her via a fake Messenger account.

The account, with her photo at the top, was used to message another party member, Ian Prince, based in Monmouth.

The last message said Alison had received £100,000 from an unknown bank, and asked if Ian had had his money yet.

"It’s possible it’s just someone thinking they’re having a laugh without realising how serious the consequences could be - but it all seems rather sinister," she told the Beacon.

"Ian emailed me last Tuesday morning, and said: "Am I talking to you on Messenger?" I said, ’No’; and I asked what were the messages saying? While I was exchanging emails with him, he was still getting messages coming through on this fake account. He then blocked the Messenger account and couldn’t bring it back up again."

Alison referred the matter to the police the same day and was told they were taking it seriously.

"The only reason for doing this that I can think of is to keep the messages till just before polling day, and then publicise them to discredit me just before everybody goes to vote, when I haven’t got time to disprove them.

"I’m told that seeking to discredit a candidate by making false allegations in order to affect the election result is a serious offence under Section 106 of the Representation of the People Act.

"The penalties are much heavier than people probably realise.

"I don’t know where this person got the connection between me and Ian. Our only link really is via Twitter.

"We’ve had quite a lot of people saying we should stand down in Monmouth in favour of Labour and Ian’s been arguing on my Twitter feed about why that’s not going to happen. Maybe it’s someone who was annoyed with these responses.

"It’s quite possible, of course, that it was set up by someone outside the area - we’ve had messages on Twitter from all over the country. I’d like to think that’s what it is, as there’s been no animosity when we’ve been campaigning locally, despite strong opinions.

"Like any politician I’m used to people on social media challenging my views but there’s been no nastiness to speak of and the hustings have been going really well, with lively debates.

"What really worries me is why this person is doing this. If it had been put out on social media just before polling day I’d have had no time to deny the claims.

"I’m astonished someone has been able to set up this fake account so easily. We need to review carefully all the ways in which people can now try to tamper with our elections.

"The law dates from when campaigning just consisted of putting leaflets through letter-boxes. It hasn’t really caught up with the internet age."

The Beacon asked Gwent Police to confirm that they were investigating the matter. They responded: "In general, due to the current ongoing election campaign, we are unable to give, or confirm any detail around complaints received in relation to electoral fraud. Due to the timing it would be inappropriate for us to provide such information.