Brazen broccoli bandit strikes four times in a week... to steal a single head from the prized vegetable

On each occasion he has cut through protective netting and pinched a single head of broccoli.

The serial thieving is driving Mr Fahy, a 71-year-old retired professor, to distraction - not least because his efforts to deter the culprit have been fruitless.

He has raised the issue with the Hampshire village's parish council and local policeman Martin Benton is on the case. Mr Fahy, who serves on the parish council, said yesterday: 'The only way to get it stopped was to report it to the police.

'The net had been carefully cut over the broccoli and the heads taken.

'Each time one head was taken. They are each worth about 50p. It is a bit distressing.'

After the first theft Mr Fahy put up a notice saying 'smile you are on camera' - but within three days the thief struck for the second time.

Then he put up a notice saying he had sprayed some of his 30-strong crop with insecticide - but still the thefts continued. Now he has put up a notice by his allotment warning the burglar that police are investigating.

Mr Fahy, a former professor of acoustics at Southampton University, said: 'My wife and I like to eat our broccoli. I have now put up a notice saying I have reported the thefts to the police.'

He added that the same thing happened at a similar time last year.

'I was not prepared to let it happen again,' he said. 'I want it stopped.'

Parish council chairman David Bidwell said: 'Frank is a very keen allotment holder. He happened to mention what had happened to his broccoli at a parish council meeting and the village policeman said this would be taken very seriously.

'It sounds trivial, but Frank has been the victim of theft. It is very disappointing to grow something on an allotment and have it taken away. At first he thought it might be a natural occurrence - maybe a rabbit. But on closer inspection, it was clear a knife had been used. And rabbits don't carry knives.'

He added: 'It is hard to know exactly when they may strike again.

'But one would hope somebody carrying several large heads of broccoli would be noticeable in a place like King's Somborne, where there is not much crime.'

Hampshire Police said: 'We have recorded this as theft although we have no firm lines of inquiry.'