EVERYONE knows how frustrating it is when you take a few treasured happy snaps on a disposable camera - and then manage to lose the device within minutes.

Unfortunately for Cheshire Police the same applied when the constabulary's new custody suites were launched.

Custody suites, such as the one at Middlewich sprung up this year to process people arrested across Cheshire.

And each prisoner taken to one of the detention centres, as is police procedure, can expect to have his or her mugshot recorded for posterity.

But due to delays in equipping the suites with full photographic capabilities, when they were opened in January, police were forced to rely upon cameras from old custody offices - and disposable cameras.

This emerged during the trial of an east Cheshire man at Chester Crown Court last week, accused of kidnapping, who was among the first people to be taken to a custody suite.

Following his arrest he had his mugshot taken with a disposable camera.

But by the time his case had come to trial, the 'happy snaps' camera had been mislaid.

An officer in the case was later required to take a surreptious picture of the accused, which was then shown to witnesses.

Identification evidence did form part of the case against the man, though his subsequent acquittal did hinge on other factors.

A Cheshire Police spokesman said this week: "There was a delay with the company that was installing the fixed cameras.

"So in the interim we used the cameras that were used in the old custody suites with disposal cameras as a back up.

"It was quite possible that the disposables could have been mislaid. It was a short term problem that has now been rectified."

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