POLICE have nabbed a bungling burglar who dropped a letter with his name and address on it at a crime scene.

The thief broke into the Sugar and Spice Bakery in Coleford and smeared cake over the CCTV camera to try to hide the evidence of his raid.

The peckish pilferer then ate two cakes and searched through the premises for other things to steal, leaving a trail of icing and crumbs in his wake.

"The thief was so incompetent you almost have to laugh but he has caused a lot of damage," said a member of staff, who did not want to be named.

"There is a lull in the wintertime and along with the current financial climate something like this does not help.

"He's done about £7,000 damage and it's going to take a while before we can recover this from the insurance."

Two vans owned by the bakery, along with around 13 others in Crucible Court and Crucible Close, were broken into during the raid.

Police were alerted to the spree at 8.05am on Saturday. They were told a man had also been seen acting suspiciously in the area.

Officers attended and arrested a 45-year-old man from Rhyl in Denbighshire on suspicion of burglary and theft from vehicles.

He has been bailed to return to Gloucester Police Station on January 31 pending further inquiries.

As well as the cakes which were eaten, two walkie-talkies, a radio and a sat nav were stolen from the vehicles.

Anyone with information should contact the police on the non-emergency number, 101, quoting incident number 126 of November 12.