A police chief has admitted his staff made a mistake when they failed to attend a restaurant where a suspected burglar was being held.

An investigation has been launched after Din Mohammed and his son Dil were twice told police could not attend Karims Tandoori in Blatchington Road, Hove, because they were too busy dealing with an attempted suicide.

They eventually had to let the intruder go.

Now Chief Superintendent Doug Rattray, Brighton and Hove police divisional commander, has written to The Argus admitting mistakes were made.

He writes: "I want to apologise to Karims in Hove. The original call to the police was unfortunately misinterpreted and graded wrongly. We organise calls and resource them according to their grade.

"I have listened to the call and have ordered an investigation into why it received a lower grading.

"Even though we had an incident in the centre of the city with a man threatening to jump, had we assessed the nature of the call properly we could have sent someone."

But despite the letter, and an earlier apology from Chief Inspector Peter Mills, Mr Mohammed, 41, of Woodingdean, Brighton, is still angry.

He said: "I think it's a total farce. I think someone needs to do something more than just write a letter. It could have been much worse and far more dangerous."

Dil Mohammed, 22, discovered the man on Tuesday when opened up to prepare for the evening's business.

After two calls to police, Mr Mohammed and his father took his details but the address was found to be a boarded-up Brighton hotel.