Thieves dash butcher's award hopes

Burglars who struck a family business cut short a butcher's hopes of taking a national title with his 'perfect' sausages.

Mark Carr, of Cam Family Butchers in Gloucestershire, was due to travel to the Foodservice Sausage of the Year competition at Smithfield Market in London, but instead spent the day tidying up the mess left by thieves who smashed their way in, taking around £3,000 in cash and prime cuts of meat.

He had won through to the final with the only 100% score in qualifying, and his Three Shires Apple and Herb sausage was a strong contender for victory in a field of 15.

In addition to the thieves making off with around £2,000, they also took the choicest cuts of meat, including rump, ribeye, topside and fillet steak.

Speaking to thisisgloucestershire.co.uk, Carr said thieves had smashed through a security door which the shop had installed on the advice of police following a burglary in December 2007.

He added: "It must have been someone with a knowledge of meat, because they have only taken the most expensive stuff and left the rest.

"It didn't have a label on it or anything to say what it was."

IMAGEAlan Simpson/PA Archive/PA Photos