Andrew Cheatle thought it had been swept out to sea after it slipped from his pocket. But a week later his girlfriend's mobile rang and it was fisherman Glen Kerley saying he'd found the phone in a 25lb fish.

Andrew got the handset back, dried it out - and amazingly it still works. Andrew, 45, said: "I was messing about with my dog and my phone must have fallen out and been swept out in the swell. I kept calling it but I gave up hope after a couple of days."

He was shopping for a new phone with girlfriend Rita Smith, 33, when her mobile went off. She told him: "Your old mobile number is calling my phone."

Andrew continued: "She said some guy was going on about my phone and a cod so she handed it over to me and he told me where he had found it. I thought he was winding me up but he assured me he had caught a cod that morning and was gutting it for his fish stall and that my Nokia was inside it - a bit worse for wear."

Glen, of Worthing, West Sussex, said: "Cod are greedy fish - they'll eat anything. They have big heads and big mouths. I've found plastic cups, stones, teaspoons, batteries and I've also heard of someone finding false teeth in one. It was a bit smelly but I was glad to return it."

For Cod's sake! They'll eat anything!

As insurance frauds went it wasn't the most imaginative...

The original was here