A thief has stolen a stack of Kingsley Napley’s laptops by the ingenious means of strolling in through the door.

The intruder walked into the firm’s London office via a faulty door on a Thursday afternoon last month, an insider told RollOnFriday. There was a security guard on site. But the intruder, destined to be a client of a different criminal defence practice before long, wasn’t spotted and gained access to the IT floor. Once inside he set about collecting all the laptops he could find, before walking out again.

The firm is now conducting a review of its security procedures. RollOnFriday can save Kingsley Napley the bother by skipping to the conclusion: have doors that shut.

In a firm-wide email, Managing Partner Linda Wooley told staff to "ensure that you are not being followed" and "ensure external doors have closed and locked behind you". So if anyone sees Kingsley Napley's lawyers looking over their shoulder, slamming doors in faces and fiddling with locks, they're not paranoid, there really are people out to get them. Wooley advised staff to report "anyone unfamiliar" or "acting suspiciously" to security, which risks sweeping up several partners who just have that look about them.

At the time of going to press the miscreant was understood to still be at large. A spokeswoman for Kingsley Napley told RollOnFriday that a police investigation was on-going. She said there was "no client or sensitive data on the machines" and that the laptops “had substantial security protection to prevent access". Unlike the front door.