Lily Allen has landed Australian police in hot water, after they took part in a prank pretending to arrest her..

The Sheezus singer ruffled the feathers of the authorities after she posted a photo on Instagram, which showed her being handcuffed by police in Queensland, before her headline performance at Splendour In The Grass festival near Byron Bay, in northern New South Wales.

The image captioned "#uhoh", which showed the 29-year-old kneeling down on the ground with her head bowed and being handcuffed by a cop at Queensland airport, got more than 7,700 likes before it was removed from her account. It was also shared with her 4.8 million Twitter followers.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the officer who put the cuffs on her and others who were involved had "breached" protocol and were facing "internal processes".

"At her request, the members involved placed open handcuffs on Allen for a photo opportunity," the spokesman said. "It appears the members involved were caught up in the moment and standard protocols were breached."

Lily's stunt didn't go down too well with Gold Coast City councillor Dawn Crichlow.

"I don't appreciate a photo of... police playing around with their handcuffs," she told Fairfax radio.

"It's bad that the federal police allowed this to happen and they should be hauled over the coals. Just a bit of fun would have been to give her the police cap and have a photo taken like that, that would have been fun."

Lily, who last played in Australia in 2009, also performed shows in Melbourne and Sydney.