A fed-up Ipswich dad has decided to cancel his milk deliveries after around 50 thefts from his doorstep.

Andrew Laws, of Rectory Road in the Old Stoke area, estimated that he might have spent as much as £200 on milk bottles, which have then been taken from outside his home.

He captured some of the thefts on CCTV, and has reported the thefts to the police on nine occasions.

“It has been going on for a long time and we got fed up with it,” Mr Laws said.

“A few days ago I got footage of someone stealing three bottles of milk and a bottle of orange juice. I don’t know how he could fit all those bottles in his pockets!”

He added that he had sometimes got up at 3am just to go and fetch the milk in before the thief could strike.

Apart from the financial aspect, Mr Laws said it was also difficult to be left with no milk at breakfast time.

“I have got a seven-year-old daughter, and the school run can be chaos in the morning, so there’s no time to go out to the shop and get more milk,” he said.

Mr Laws, a musician and writer who works under the name “Andrew Culture”, said: “We got our milk delivered for a number of reasons, one being our attempt to cut down on the amount of plastic food containers we consume.”

He said he was disappointed to have to stop the deliveries, but couldn’t justify continuing to buy milk if it kept being stolen.

Mr Laws added the police had been helpful and taken the incidents seriously.

A police spokesman said: “Suffolk police have received nine reports of theft of milk in relation to the individual concerned since October last year.

“Although the victim has provided us with a CCTV image of a suspect, it is not of good enough quality to assist our enquiries. However, this has been circulated to the local policing team and intelligence unit and will be included on a briefing document to officers.

“The crimes have been investigated as far as reasonably possible and at this stage there are no other lines of enquiry, pending any new information coming to light.”