A carp owner had to pick his beloved fish out in an ID parade when a fellow collector stole them from his pond.

When Steven Burrows caught old acquaintance Alan Lawrence, 41, at the pond with a large net and a bag containing one of his carp, the 41-year-old claimed he was just admiring it.

But Mr Burrows discovered ten of the carp - worth £900 - were missing.

At Colchester Magistrates' Court Lawrence at first denied the theft of 11 carp, but on the day of his trial admitted taking ten of the fish and attempting to steal another. Paul Donegan, mitigating, said: "He purely succumbed to temptation as a keen collector himself."

The bench ordered Lawrence do 200 hours of unpaid work and pay court costs of £365.