Thief takes bone lace bobbin from Honiton Antiques Festival display.

The wrong type of visitor has been attracted to Honiton Tourist Information Centre - a thief!

As the centre’s trustees battle to plug a temporary hole in finances, light-fingered visitors have been helping themselves to sale items.

A bone lace bobbin, part of a display to mark Honiton Antiques Festival, is the latest item to go missing.

Heidi Radford, the centre’s manager, said: “I came in on Monday morning last week and one of the bobbins was gone. It had not been sold and was made of bone, so was of some value .”

The bobbin is not the first item to be stolen from the centre.

“We have had the odd book taken in the past,” said Heidi.

“That could be due to visitors not realising they were ones that had to be paid for.

“However, the thefts are a great loss to us at a time when we are struggling because of the economic downturn.”

Last month, one of the centre’s trustees, Mike Huxtable, asked Honiton and District Chamber of Commerce and Industry if it would consider giving a one-off donation to keep the facility running during a predicted lean period at the start of next year.

Since then, the chamber has agreed to back a money-making scheme to help the centre keep going.