Thieves had broken into the back yard of The Vicarage Nursery and Pre-School in Gosport three times in 10 days.

They stole electrical cable so they could sell the copper inside for thousands of pounds.

Owner Lee Wilcox was having to sleep on site as a deterrent and the nursery even had to close for a day, meaning staff had to turn away more than 50 parents and their children.

But since the story appeared in The News last Friday the thieves have kept well away, and Mr Wilcox has been able to sleep in his own bed.

He said: 'We're so pleased. The publicity has obviously put them off and it's been great being able to sleep in my own home.'

The nursery and pre-school also had more good news when electrical company Scottish Power called them on Friday morning offering to fast track their mains electrical installation and get rid of their temporary generator.

Mr Wilcox said: 'Because we'd only just moved into the building recently we were waiting on the final electrical connections to be made within the building.

'So we had to have the temporary generator, which unfortunately had an emergency stop button which the thieves were hitting so they could then cut the cable.

'Now we can get rid of the temporary generator we'll be fine.'