Reports that Ikea's biggest export is its free pencils were "wildly exaggerated", according to the furniture store's press office.

However stories claiming that millions of the tiny complimentary pencils, intended for use by paying customers, are stolen' each year by freeloaders all over the UK appear to be backed up by staff at the Croydon branch.

One employee said that golfers were partly to blame for stocking up on pencils to mark their scorecards, while another admitted the Purley Way store was once sent a plastic bag containing around 200 pencils.

The bag was accompanied with a letter from a mum whose two children had stolen the pencils on a recent trip and came complete with a signed apology from the guilty pair.

Ikea insist it has no problem' with customers pilfering the odd pencil, adding: "We provide the pencils with the intention that people take them home, so we are glad that our customers find them useful."