Police release e-fits of criminal gang

E-fits of a gang of thieves who look they like have travelled from the early 1900s have been released by police. The prime suspects are a woman who may well have stepped off the set of Brideshead Revisited or Poirot in her 1920s turban hat and bright red lipstick. Her burly accomplice appears to be wearing a sailor’s hat in a bid to disguise himself as Benny Hill’s Ernie who was, of course, the fastest milkman in the west.

They are joined by a ginger-haired woman and are wanted by Gloucestershire police in connection with two thefts. And it should not be too hard to spot the trio. ‘The woman looks just like Miss Lemon from the Poirot series,’ said 58-year-old company director Giles Hayhurst, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire. ‘Maybe the force can enlist the detective skills of Poirot to solve this mystery.’



In the first incident, the Brideshead Revisited lookalike distracted an elderly woman by asking her for directions while carrying a map. Her Benny Hill-inspired accomplice then used the opportunity to steal a credit card from the good samaritan’s car. They then spent £1,000 on the card in March. Police are also hunting the pair over a similar incident in Cheltenham the following month.

A woman had her purse stolen in a supermarket car park by the man while his glamorous assistant again asked for directions. ‘We understand it is human nature to want to help people who appear to be lost but sadly there are some preying on people’s good will to their advantage,’ said Paul Francis, from Gloucestershire police.