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Cheltenham seems to be going through a period of criminal behaviour - after police issued e-fits of a gang who look like they could appear in Downton Abbey.

The trio are wanted for a distraction burglary and distraction thefts in the town.

(Image: SWNS)

(Image: SWNS)

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But they are by no means the oddest pictures put out by police as they attempt to track down criminal suspects.

Police in Bolivia were ridiculed in 2009 after releasing an amateurish sketch in a bid to help solve an eight-month-old murder case. But the last laugh was on them as they arrested a suspect.

A burglary victim was unimpressed by this e-fit put out by Norfolk police in 2006.

She said she would ask them to have another go as the image "looked like no one I've ever seen in my life".

(Image: PA)

Portuguese police issued this notorious 'egg' e-fit during the hunt for missing British youngster Madeleine McCann. Simon Russell, 40, told how police brought the faceless image to his internet shop to ask if any customers had been accessing suspicious websites. He said: "Basically I was looking at nothing more than an egg with brown hair and a side parting." He drew it from memory to give the picture below.

(Image: PA)

Portugal's is not the only police force to think facial features are optional. Royal Thai Police sent out this next to useless sketch of a bank robber in 2009.

This 2005 e-fit from Strathclyde Police at least included a nose and mouth, but the bizarre glasses and no eyes made this suspect in an abduction and assault look Andy Warhol-esque.

(Image: PA)

A thief who stole £60 from an 85-year-old pensioner's handbag was described as white, aged 40 to 45, with a round clean-shaven face, large eyes and wavy blonde to greying hair.

Hampshire police put together this e-fit - which seems to have a lettuce halo.

(Image: Rex)

Laws prevented New Zealand police hunting a teen suspect in connection of a burglary releasing a picture of the 16-year-old lad they wanted to question.

Instead they used a picture of the decades older Cracker star Robbie Coltrane, who they said the suspect resembled.

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At least they put a person on the poster. This tragic TV news report is rendered rather less serious by a mugshot mix-up of epic proportions, as a picture of a HAMSTER is shown instead.

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This TV news presenter had an altogether different problem with an unfortunate resemblance to a suspected rapist.

Atlanta police were looking for a murdering truck driver when they released this e-fit, which appears to show a man with a chimney brush on his head.

South Wales police issued this less than ideal photo-fit of a robbery suspect in 2008.

In 2005, 82 year old Australian caricaturist Bill "Weg" Green confronted a burglar running through his back yard in Victoria.

After confronting the intruder, Green called the police then proceeded to take pen to paper and produce the lovable cartoon rogue below. But it was enough to help the cops arrest the culprit at a local shop.

This armed robber looks somewhat surprised. Scotland Yard issued the e-fit of one of two men who ambushed a security van at gunpoint

(Image: PA)

And if you want to see that however odd the e-fits may be, perhaps there is someone that looks like that, go to: