A WOMAN is fuming after she followed a shoplifter to his home address - but police said they had no one available to attend.

Lorraine Hammond, 57, of Canvey, witnessed a man putting his shopping straight in to a JD Sports bag in Iceland’s Canvey store.

While she was paying for her own shopping, she then watched him walk straight out of the door without attempting to pay for any of his items.

She said: “After I had paid for my shopping, I went out to see if I could find him.

“I drove round to Furtherwick Road and saw him walking along.

“I shouted to him that he should take what he had stolen back or give it to me so I could, but he just carried on walking.”

Mrs Hammond, a housewife, continued to follow him and phoned the police to tell them what was happening.

She eventually tracked him down to Thorney Bay campsite and followed him back to his caravan.

She passed his address on to the police - but was shocked when she was told there were no police officers available.

Even when she chased the police up the next day, she claims she was told there was no one who could go and question him.

She said: “They have let him get away with it. If he knows he can get away with it, he could move on to burgling people’s houses.

“I got his address - all the police had to do was go down there.

“I feel as though I wasted my time.”

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “Essex Police’s key priority is to reach emergency calls as soon as possible in order to help those in most need of police assistance, and we assess every call based on threat, harm, risk and vulnerability.

A number of factors could affect response times that require a high level of resource. There may also be a large number of priority calls that officers are attending.”

They were due to visit her yesterday, according to the spokesman.

Call PC Stuart Burch at Rayleigh police station on 101 with any information.