A FAMILY was left heartbroken after returning from a fun Easter holiday to find their home in Hatherop had been burgled - and all dad's birthday presents had been stolen.

The Slater family, Robert, Emily and their three sons aged nine, seven and five, were enjoying a sunny beach holiday in Wales earlier this week.

Returning to their home in Hatherop, near Fairford, on Wednesday they were distraught to discover thousands of pounds worth of goods, including sentimental items, had been stolen while they were away.

"The first thing I thought was 'where has my car gone?'" said Robert Slater, who noticed the family BMW was missing from the driveway.

"Then we saw we had been burgled - I saw the TV was gone. I was in disbelief."

Father-of-three Robert had only just celebrated his 40th birthday and was devastated to discover all the presents from his wife and children had also been taken.

"They've taken a brand new mountain bike which I've only used once," he said. "They took a brand new GoPro camera which was still in its box and all my wife's sentimental jewellery handed down from family."

The thieves also took a camera with a memory card which had more than 2,000 photos of the three young boys from when they were born and growing up.

"We believe we live in a very safe Cotswold village and you don't expect that to happen anywhere, especially if you live in a lovely village," added Robert.

"I'm trying to remain positive. It's just that whole invasion of privacy. It's made my family really uncomfortable. It's definitely affected my wife, and we had to play it down for the kids. They don't want to brush their teeth on their own."

The family have lived in Hatherop, near Cirencester, for just more than a year now. Robert said they are all constantly looking over their shoulder when they leave the house now.

"Just obviously I would not wish this on anyone else," said Robert. "Just be very careful when you go anywhere - who is checking your property? Tell your neighbours. It's certainly made us check everything in the house and look behind us when we go anywhere now.

"Let's hope police catch them."

Anyone with information about the burglary, or who has seen the stolen BMW 520d (registration number PX12 CKV) is urged to call police on 101, quoting incident number 168 of 8 April 2015.