A PAIR of step-brothers came up with a “genius” plan to get around their parents’ screen-time ban.

       Tricksters Fabien Birch and Ben Stewart, both 14, made fake iPhones to hand in to their parents.

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       Step brothers Ben Stewart and Fabien Birch, both 14 Credit: Kennedy News 3

       The cunning teens tricked their parents with fake iPhones Credit: Kennedy News

       The teens parents had created a rule that meant they had to give their parents their phones at 9pm every night.

       But the cunning schoolboys decided to try to outsmart the adults by padding out their phone cases with paper and sellotaped a photo of an iPhone on top.

       They handed them over to Rebecca, 50 and Andrew, 47, and the sneaky plan worked for a couple of hours.

       But they soon spotted a piece of tape sticking out of one of the cases and realised they had been fooled.

       Rebecca, from Sherborne, Dorset, told The Mirror: "Like any parents, it's always a battle with screens, Xboxes and phones and we get fed up.

       "One night we just said that's it, we wanted everyone's phones at 9pm so they could get some sleep.

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       "They weren't happy at all. They went off and we didn't think anything of it. We didn't hear from them for a while, they were being quiet.

       "Then at one minute to nine they came downstairs with their phones and said 'here you go, our phones are on the side'. And we thought it was brilliant. We were so impressed. We thought we'd cracked it and they were actually doing what we'd asked.

       But they soon spotted a piece of tape sticking out of one of the cases and realised they had been fooled.

       Rebecca explained: "We thought they were distracting themselves with other things but they'd actually been googling iPhones, printing them off and sellotaping them on their phone cases.

       "They'd even padded the cases out with paper so it looked like there were phones in them."

       "They were like partners in crime trying to pull the wool over our eyes. There's never a dull moment in our house.

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       "When I realised, I just thought 'oh my God' and I couldn't be mad. I thought it was genius and brilliant.

       "I had nothing but respect for it and I was proud that they'd actually put effort into something and used their initiative."

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       Mum Rebecca Birch, 50, with son Fabien, 14 Credit: Kennedy News