A couple who captured a burglar in their house watched in despair as he escaped while they waited for police to arrive.

An investigation has been launched into why it took officers 25 minutes to arrive as the nearest station is just over a mile away.

The couple, who do not want to be identified, were in bed when the wife heard someone downstairs.

The 51-year-old told us: "My daughter and her boyfriend had gone away and I thought it was them coming back.

"I went downstairs and the front door was open and a suitcase was in the lounge. I thought it was theirs."

The woman went into the living room to be confronted by a man wearing just a pair of jeans. She told him to get out and as he fled, her husband wrestled him to the ground outside their home on the Whitehawk estate in Brighton.

They both held onto him until the wife ran back into the house to call police, at 6.55am.

She said: "I told them we had him on the ground outside and we were told they would be with us soon."

As the couple, who live near John Street police station, waited for officers to arrive the man, aged about 25, wriggled free and fled. The woman said: "He was completely out of it. He was really slimy too and my husband couldn't keep hold of him.

"When the police arrived they said 'Oh, you've let him go'. I don't think they came here quickly enough."

The incident was one of two reported to Inspector Steve Curry at the monthly Whitehawk Crime Prevention Forum.

Another resident told how a disabled pensioner called the police to report a suspicious man trying to get into her home.

She was asked to go to her front door to see if the man was still there and officers did not attend the house until three days later.

Insp Curry promised to look into both cases.

He said: "All I can say to take 25 minutes is unacceptable. I will find out exactly what was happening at that time.

"The unfortunate reality is we deal with hundreds and hundreds of incidents across Sussex. There will be a percentage we will get wrong, but that does not make it any more acceptable."

In January, pensioner Thomas Didcott told The Argus how he tracked down his wife's stolen car in Brighton but police were too busy to seize it. Officers rang him the next day, having recovered the car, and left him with a £250 tow bill.

In August last year, a curry house owner kept a suspected burglar prisoner for more than an hour but had to free him when police failed to turn up.