A BOY was caught trying to steal a duck to 'cure' his terminally ill mother.

The youngster was found by a warden as he prepared to plunge into the duck pond, in Valentine's Park, Ilford, to catch a plump mallard to cook for his mother's dinner.

After being handed over to Redbridge Parks Police (RPP), the boy, who was born in Afghanistan, explained that a priest in his native country had told him his sick mother would die unless he fed her with duck meat.

Parks Constable (PC) Iqbal Sheryar, who speaks fluent Urdu, met with an angry response when he told the boy to buy a bird from a nearby branch of Sainsbury's instead.

He said: "This young guy was really upset when we told him he couldn't take a duck from the pond, and begged us to let him jump in and grab one.

"My colleague, Sgt Stephen Warr, is a former paramedic, and we explained to him that feeding his mum duck meat wouldn't cure any kind of illness.

"I don't think he understood that it's illegal in this country to take birds and animals from our parks."

The teenager, whose exact age is not known, was released without charge after the bizarre incident, which has prompted RPP chief John Boylin to warn park users of the consequences of stealing and killing the borough's wildlife.

His officers, who enforce council bylaws in Redbridge's green spaces, are about to erect multilingual warning signs in the borough's parks ordering people not to poach.

He said: "This was a particularly strange incident, but it is not an isolated case because we had problems last summer with people jumping into some of our ponds and stealing carp.

"Many of these people then barbecued the fish next to the pond, seemingly unaware that they were breaking the law.

"We hope to try and tackle this problem by erecting signs in the parks which will list the byelaws in a number of languages so that people know what they can and can't do."