Do you recognise this brazen Wigan bike thief?

Jonathan Ashcroft, from Goose Green, was enraged to see footage of the hoodie-wearing offender calmly walk up to his home in broad daylight before picking up the cycle belonging to his eight-year-old child Alyssa and pedal off on it.

The incident happened outside Jonathan’s house on Anthorn Road at around 1.45pm on Monday.

Jonathan says he has reported it to the police but so far had no answer.

In the hope of getting more information about the snatching of his daughter’s bike he has passed his CCTV footage to a local Facebook group for residents.

And he warned that the Goose Green and Hawkley Hall areas are suffering particular problems with thefts which the authorities need to clamp down on.

Jonathan, 30, said: “At first we thought a child on the street might have picked it up as they all play together but then I watched the CCTV and this guy just wanders down, picks the bike up and disappears with it.

“I’m not very impressed with this, obviously, and my daughter isn’t happy either. She’s got enough going on without this.

“There has been a lot of trouble in the past couple of months with stuff going missing. The Facebook page for our neighbourhood says thefts and cars and houses getting broken into is rife at the moment.

“There’s a long list of things that have happened in this area recently.”

The footage shows a slim, young-looking male dressed all in dark clothing with a black hooded jumper, dark grey trousers and boots of a similar colour boldly approach the Ashcroft family home.

He walks straight up to Alyssa’s bike, which is a bright white with a silver and black sticker bearing the word Emma on it, picks it up and then pedals off out of the camera shot.

Fortunately no-one was in at the time of the distressing incident as the family was out doing half-term activities but discovered the theft when they returned.

Jonathan said that as his family live in the corner of their street there are two possible routes the thief could have taken with the bike after he headed out of the right-hand side of the CCTV shot.

Jonathan says he rang Greater Manchester Police (GMP) on Monday after discovering the theft but an officer was yet to get back to him.

Anyone who recognises the man in these images should ring the police on 101 or call independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.