A MAN was dismayed to find a bouquet of flowers to be placed on his mum’s grave for her birthday, were stolen from the cemetery less than an hour later.

Malcolm Lewis was attending the funeral of his cousin on Friday (February 15) at Worcester Crematorium and so bought some flowers for his mum’s grave in the adjoining Astwood Cemetery.

As he was running late, the 63-year-old, from Droitwich, said he placed the flowers in some of the metal vases near the crematorium and planned to put them at the grave after the service.

However, once the funeral was over, he went back to the cemetery, in Tintern Avenue, with his brother and found the flowers were gone.

Mr Lewis said: “It’s really annoying that somebody could be so low. They must have watched me put them down and go inside the crematorium. It was broad daylight.

“I put them in the metal vases because I was running late and needed to get some more water. It was about 50 yards from my mum’s grave.”

His wife Carol Lewis, 61, said it was “absolutely disgraceful”.

A staff member at the cemetery said Mr Lewis had not reported the theft to them and said staff only remove flowers from the cemetery when they are dead.

She said there are metal vases for members of the public to put flowers around the Garden of Remembrance, where ashes are laid, and also further up in the cemetery, near the graves.

A Worcester City Council spokesman said: “We are very sorry to hear that Mr Lewis has had this experience. Theft is a criminal offence, so we would strongly advise Mr Lewis to report this matter to the police.”

Mr Lewis said he had not reported the incident to police.

We reported on Wednesday how Worcester mum Mechelle Bradley was heartbroken that her daughter’s statue in Astwood Cemetery had been stolen for the second time in around 12 months, in the last couple of weeks.

READ MORE: Worcester mum distraught as statue stolen from baby's grave