This UK police force are doing a 'wanted people' advent calendar and it's totally ridiculous

Christmas: a time of peace on earth and goodwill to all men.

Unless you’re a dirty rotten scoundrel of a criminal however, in which case, there’ll be no mince pies and turkey for you - just the back of a cold police cell.

At least, that seems to be the attitude of Essex Police who, despite the general message of Jesus being to forgive and to offer shelter to those who repent, have chosen to adopt the Yuletide period to up their bad guy-catching game instead.

They’ve unveiled the first in what we can only presume is a series of 24 entries in a ‘wanted advent calendar’ in the shape of Tiras Downie, a 38 year-old wanted on suspicion of breaching a court order.

Some found the stunt funny, while others were appalled that the police would be so light-hearted about people’s futures.

We can only presume that if Pontius Pilate had had Twitter back in the Roman days that he would have tweeted out a plea for #Jesus of Nazareth to come and hand himself in and face the cold, hard wrath of the Judean police force.

(Image: Essex Police)