A RURAL surveillance operation caught a thief stealing fresh eggs from a 'farm gate'.

Michael Vooght and his wife Gail, of Marsdon Farm, Luton, were fed up that somebody was systematically taking the free range eggs, costing £2 a dozen, but not leaving any money in an honesty tin, or just small change.

So with the help of the police they set up a CCTV camera.

Now police have issued the woman culprit with an £80 fixed penalty notice, which covers low value thefts.

'Not a lot of money was involved, but it was annoying because we do not make a big profit from the sales anyway,' said Mr Vooght.

'The thefts were particularly mean, and although I did not initially want to bother the police with it, we decided to inform them on principle.

'They could not have been more helpful. They advised us to install CCTV to capture the number of vehicles stopping.

'There was the problem of proving who was responsible but, with the help of neighbourhood beat manager PC Rob Harvey and community support officer Colin Rider, we kept a log book of stock and payments made and tallied it against the vehicles.'

Eventually their perseverance paid off when a woman who made five visits and took £14 worth of eggs, but only paid a total of £1.81, was identified.

PC Harvey, said: 'It is only a small minority who abuse the trust of the Vooghts. Inquiries are still continuing into two other vehicles thought to be involved in the thefts.

'We want a warning to go out to people who do this sort of thing that they could be being watched and caught.'

The eggs are kept in a wooden, free-standing larder-style cupboard close to the old red telephone box in the village, which was made by Mr Vooght's father as a meat safe in the days before fridges.