POLICE have released a CCTV image of a man they would like to identify after the theft of a purse from a Bournemouth hotel and subsequent card use.

Officers are investigating the incident which involved a purse being stolen from a staff room area at the Royal Bath Hotel in Bath Road between 6pm and 7.50pm on Friday, June 7.

A card was subsequently used to pay contactless for items in Tesco Express in The Triangle.

The victim, a local woman aged in her 20s, received notification of this transaction and immediately cancelled her card. A further attempt was made to pay for items at a second store at 8.11pm the same day but this was declined.

PC Graeme Johnston, of Dorset Police, said: “As part of our enquiries I am now in a position to issue a CCTV image of a man we would like to identify and I am appealing to anyone who knows who he is to please contact Dorset Police.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police at dorset.police.uk, by emailing 101@dorset.pnn.police.uk or by calling 101, quoting occurrence number 55190086389.