The Australian Federal Police is probing the creator of a Twitter account that’s allegedly posing as Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan, according to reports.

No one has been charged over the account, however a police spokesman confirmed the Cyber Crime Operations unit was investigating the owner of the account, allegedly passing as Mr Keenan.

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It is a federal crime to impersonate any Commonwealth public official, reported Fairfax.

A spokeswoman for Mr Keenan said the profile in question was active for three weeks last month. Twitter removed the account once it was made aware it existed.

“The fake account contained ministerial photographs as well as links to ministerial media releases – believed to be taken from a legitimate Facebook account,” she said.

The user followed political journalists and hundreds of other accounts. The person also had conversations with people who thought the account was genuine.

Under the Criminal Code Act, impersonating a Commonwealth public official can result in two years’ imprisonment.

This does not include impersonations for “solely satirical purposes”.