Welling people are being warned to watch out for a thief who is stealing letters from external mail boxes and stealing residents’ identities.

Officers in St Michael’s ward are investigating reports of mail thefts, with the most recent incident seeing a white baseball cap-wearing black man, aged 25 to 30, carrying a bag of letters and going into people’s gardens.

In a letter to residents yesterday, Sergeant Bryan Young warned: “This also happened several months ago in and around the Lyme Road, Charmouth Road and Berwick Road areas and today it happened again in Lyme Road. I have reason to believe it is the same suspect.

“It is believed that this suspect attends mid-morning after the postal staff have delivered the letters as we believe the suspect is intercepting mail and using resident’s identification to apply for credit cards and loans fraudulently.”

Anyone with information should call police on 101.