A MYSTERY thief has followed a bizarre route to crime by swiping road signs from the borough's streets.

The sign stealer's scam hit a dead-end after the collection, worth £600, was seized thanks to a tip-off from an alert council officer.

Now News Shopper is asking our readers to shop the thief, so he can be sent on the highway to prosecution.

The haul of 20 signs includes old favourites such as Give Way and No Entry, along with signs giving information on the new road layout in Lewisham High Street.

They were spotted by an eagle-eyed council officer piled up against a wall in Courthill Road, Hither Green.

The spotter took a picture of the signs on his mobile phone, before sending the evidence to the council's environmental unit.

The identity of the thief is not known but council bosses believe he or she was set to sell the signs for scrap.

Lewisham Mayor Steve Bullock said: "The scrap metal market is particularly buoyant at the moment so I guess anything made from metal is at risk.

"We have enough people complaining about the state of road signs and we are doing our best to replace them, so this is the last thing we need.

"The bottom line is we don't want our road signs being nicked."

It is a year since Lewisham Council first encouraged residents to use their mobiles to help it tackle environmental crime.

Since the Love Lewisham scheme was introduced last February, 17,000m of graffiti has been cleared from the borough's streets.

Sightings of flytipping have also increased by 14 per cent, thanks to help from alert residents.

Mr Bullock added: "We really rely on people as our eyes and ears to make sure we are all living in a cleaner and safer borough.

"We are able to deal with things such as graffiti and vandalism much quicker now.

"The road sign spot shows our scheme is working."

Do you know the identity of the road sign thief? Call the newsdesk on 01689 885790. Call the Love Lewisham line on 020 8314 7171 to report environmental crime in the borough.