A light-hearted newspaper story about a girl who passed through customs on holiday using her toy unicorn’s passport has sparked an official investigation overseas.

The South Wales Argus told how Emily Harris’s mother Nicky accidentally handed over the unicorn’s play Designabear passport to Turkish customs officials as they entered the country for a holiday.

Despite checking the passport and asking Emily her name, the officer stamped the passport – which features a gold bear on the cover and a picture of the purple unicorn as identification – and let her through.

An official investigation has now been launched by the Turkish authorities.

Editor Kevin Ward said the family had approached the paper to share their story.

“It was just an interesting, quirky story – but it caught people’s attention. There were papers in India reporting it,” he said.

“We had no idea it would lead to a formal investigation.”

Emily with her toy unicorn and right, the fake passport which got her through customs in Turkey

It was the second story in a week to attract major national – and in this case, international – attention after an exclusive splash revealed the Gwent Police Crime Commissioner had forced the police force’s chief constable to step down from her post.

Kevin received a plain brown envelope one morning containing the details of what had gone on between the two police chiefs. He also wrote a blog outlining to readers how the scoop went from an anonymous tip-off to a front page lead.

In it, he wrote: “Scoops like this do not come around that often. Sometimes, they take weeks of preparatory work to secure. Sometimes, like this week, they fall into your lap.

“But they are one of the reasons why I became a journalist almost 30 years ago.

“Any journalist will tell you there is nothing like the feeling of having a great story that you know no-one else has. It’s the thrill of knowing something that the rest of the world doesn’t.

“And stories like this highlight why a free and unfettered Press is so important.”