Mystery of the North Cornwall election billboards thief who has struck 35 times

A political mystery is unfolding in one Cornish constituency as the Duchy prepares to vote in the General Election in two weeks' time. Who is the phantom Lib Dem billboard nicker?

One visible feature of any election campaign is the posters, signboards and billboards that start to spring up in windows, gardens and fields promoting political candidates and parties. North Cornwall is no exception. However, for one political team getting their campaign boards up has turned into something of a challenge.

After erecting dozens of orange diamond-shaped boards, bearing the slogan ‘Ben Maguire, Winning Here for the Liberal Democrats’, the candidate's team have turned detective to try to discover who has been removing some of them, sometimes in broad daylight.

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Boards have been regularly disappearing from Lib Dem-supporting private properties over the last two weeks. At last count it had happened 35 times. In particular, the route through Wadebridge and along the Kew Highway has been targeted relentlessly.

Jodie Philp, who lives near Withiel, said: "I got home from work around 5pm yesterday and told my sister 'the board’s gone again', but she’d driven past 30 minutes before and it was still up so someone had nabbed it but could easily have been caught, it was pretty brazen."

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She added: "It’s become a bit of a cat and mouse now. We put signs up, whoever it is removes them but we just bang more up. And they’re usually bigger ones too."

Another volunteer, who did not want to be named, said: "It’s been a great team effort to get our boards out and it’s wonderful when locals ask for one, but it’s physical work to get the stakes in the ground and this mystery thief is starting to play havoc with my back - it’s been five times now that my board alone’s been taken."

Lib Dem supporter Matt Appleton, from St Tudy, added: "We’ve got some wildlife cameras placed at strategic locations so we’re confident we might just catch someone on camera. It has been irritating but it hasn’t hampered the campaign. Morale is high and there is a real spirit of camaraderie and positivity. We’ve been joking that they might be a secret Ben Maguire fan and creating their own tribute to him somewhere."

Liberal Democrat candidate Ben said: "Obviously, we don’t want to speculate on who might be doing this or why. It’s been a challenge we’ve risen to and brought us stronger together as a team, but we would like to ask whoever is doing it to just let the process take its course. It’s only for two more weeks and then we’ll happily gift you as many stake boards as you’d like."

The mystery board thefts follow the defacing of election posters by Ben's Conservative rival Scott Mann while the Royal Cornwall Show was taking place earlier this month. He said: "Volunteers across all the parties work very hard during the election and it's not nice when they have to go and collect or repair signs and posters that have been smashed up and defaced."

This week a poster for Camborne and Redruth's Conservative candidate Connor Donnithorne was vandalised by someone who put googly eyes over the Cornwall Councillor's glasses.