An image of a little girl sadly watching her heart-shaped red balloon drift away, originally a stencil on a grimy wall by Banksy, has toppled Constable’s Hay Wain as the nation’s best-loved work of art.

The most famous version of Girl with Balloon, by the Bristol-born street artist, appeared on the side of a bridge on the South Bank in London in 2002. It is now ubiquitous, available as prints, greeting cards and mugs, as an instant street artist kit in a precut stencil marketed by a firm in the US, and as a recent addition to the impressive collection of tattoos almost covering the skin of pop star Justin Bieber.

Another version in the East End was among several Banksys which sparked outrage when the new owners of the building proposed to peel it off the wall and send it to auction. A miniature version, painted on the cardboard backing of a cheap picture frame, sold in 2012 for more than £73,000.

If you are given a stencil by a man claiming to be “Robin Banks” don’t book that expensive holiday just yet as this Banksy is a fake.

A man who appears to be cashing in on the anonymity of the most successful street artist in the world has been doing the rounds near Penrith, Cumbria of late, giving a print to a schoolboy on a train and popping into a local restaurant to describe the décor as “funky”.

Two murals in the style of Banksy have also appeared at local beauty spot Lacy Caves, north of Little Salkeld, near Penrith (see photos, below).

He’s fooled several national newspapers as well as more than a handful of individuals. Trouble is, “Robin Banks” is so keen to introduce himself as the famous street artist (not to mention to give work away) that locals are smelling a rat rather like the ones Banksy stencils.