Plea for thief to return yellow plastic banner

* No longer content with the timeless but passe student pastime of stealing traffic cones and road signs, mischievous undergraduates at Liverpool John Moores University have gone a step too far.

"In the week before Christmas the large yellow plastic banner with the wording 'The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation' went missing from the basement car park in JMU tower," according to an appeal in the university's newsletter, JMU world.

"If anyone accidentally picked up the banner could you please return it as soon as possible (it is needed for the next car boot sale at the end of January). It can be returned anonymously via the internal post..."