A family from Warwickshire had a shock end to their TT holiday after watching live footage of two criminals trying to break into their home.

TT fans Neil and Suzi Gilbert’s house in the village of Bulkington is covered by a sophisticated closed circuit television system which sends the used email alerts when movement nearby is detected. ’We received an alert and when we opened the email at about 10.15pm on Tuesday night we could see people trying to break into our house,’ Mr Gilbert said.

The couple reacted immediately, contacting their neighbour, the police and family, who were on the scene within minutes.

The security system also allows the user to communicate with anyone present at the house so they were also able to warn the miscreants off before anything was taken.

’We were amazed because it wasn’t even particularly dark,’ Mr Gilbert said

’I can’t tell you the shock you get seeing people crawling all around your property and being so helpless to stop them.’

While a couple of the upstairs windows were smashed, the alert came soon enough to stop anything being taken.

’They did a runner, but we do have really good footage of them and we have even had names suggested to us.

’It’s such a relief they didn’t get in. The CCTV is the best thing I’ve ever installed.

’You do get notifications when a cat walks by but that’s a small price to pay.

Though no-one entered his house, Mr Gilbert has still been left counting the cost of the episode.

They were just three days into an eight-day holiday when the break-in occurred and they had to return home to assess the damage.

’We had paid £1,400 to stay through practice week and with the addition of the ferry cost the total is probably nearer £2,000.

’With such good weather it seems even worse,’ he said.

Mr Gilbert, a 55-year-old kitchen designer, has been visiting the island for the past 25 years for the TT, sometimes helping a friend who was competing in the TT, as well as to participate in the End to End mounain bike race and the Jurby Endurance race.

’It makes us a bit apprehensive about leaving the house next time, but we will be back for TT 2019 at one of our favourite places which is Glen Wyllin in Kirk Michael,’ he said.