THIEVES stole a much-loved bike from a schoolgirl who was in bed recovering from an accident.

Nine-year-old Charley Wade, of Cecil Road, Walthamstow, broke her leg in a trampoline accident leaving her bedridden for the duration of the six-week school summer holiday while her leg is in a plaster cast.

Already feeling miserable that she couldn't go out to play on her new bicycle, she was even more upset to wake up yesterday (Wednesday) to discover it had been snatched from her garden.

Her distraught mum, Gemma Saban, 27, said: “She was really devastated.

"She had always wanted a bike but couldn't afford it. Then my mum and dad bought her a mountain bike for her birthday.

“She loved it but couldn't use it because of the accident. Then someone stole it.

“I couldn't believe it - she has been so unlucky.”

The mum-of-two said she usually brings the purple Apollo mountain bike inside the house in the evening, but because her husband has also been in hospital she was too busy putting the children to bed.

She said she hadn't expected that someone would scale the six foot high wall to steal a child's bicycle.

She added: “I am upset that they have come into the garden and taken it. It shook me up that someone would do that. I only hope we can get it back for her.”