Guinness's St James's Gate brewery in Dublin has been hit by an audacious raid in which an evidently thirsty man dubbed "the Beer Hunter" made off with 40,000 pints of the famous stout.

According to the Times, the perp simply drove into the brewery yard in his own HGV, hitched it to a "well-provisioned" trailer and drove out again. The total pintage nicked was 360 kegs of Guinness and Budweiser and 90 kegs of Carlsberg, worth a total of £46,000.

A spokeswoman for Diageo Ireland, owner of Guinness, said: "We've never had such a breach of security prior to this and we're taking it extremely seriously. All CCTV footage on site is being viewed and the Gardai are also looking at CCTV footage along the quays. The haul has a significant value. We have more trailers coming in and out as we are coming up to Christmas."

The spokeswoman rather brilliantly added: "What could they possibly want with all that beer?" ®

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