A Plymouth woman who reported a burglar had taken a picture of himself on her phone has said that she knows the man in the photo.

The woman found a picture on her mobile of an unknown man sitting in her home

The woman contacted Devon and Cornwall Police believing that a burglar had left a chilling calling card.

However, in what the police have called a “genuine lapse in memory” the unnamed woman forgot that the man had been in her house and was known to her.

The woman also reported that crisps and other food had gone missing from her house around the incident sometime in October.

A Police spokesman said: “We’ve had contact from the woman this morning who’s phone the image was on, to say she now knows who the man in the picture is and that he was in her house legitimately.

“We are therefore assured this has been a mistake, the man in the photo is not a suspect of any crime and we will be making further contact with this person shortly to learn more.

“We assume this was a genuine lapse of memory by this woman and we want to apologise to anyone who has been distressed by initially reading this story.”