A KENT holidaymaker looking for cheap luggage during a trip to Australia stumbled across a priceless hoard of Beatles memorabilia.

Fraser Claughton, of Baddlesmere Road, Whitstable, came across the stash at a flea market while looking at suitcases during a holiday to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday.

Experts say the find is likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds but it could end up much higher if tapes which are among them turn out to be unheard recordings.

Mr Claughton, 41, said: "I went to Australia at the last minute and took hardly any luggage with me.

"The day after my friend's birthday I went to a flea market at a place called Lara, near Melbourne. I spotted one tatty old suitcase which frankly I wouldn't have given house room, but when I picked it up I realised there was something in it.

"When I opened it I found all these photographs, documents, books, magazines and the tapes.

"As a Beatles fan I thought they looked interesting and ended up paying. In the end I paid 50 dollars, just under £20, for the lot.

"Now I've been told that to collectors the photographs, books, magazines and documents alone are worth a fortune. The documents in the main are recording sheets for some of the best-known Beatles hits. And the tapes, if they turn out to be unheard material, could be almost priceless."

The tapes are in sealed containers indicating they come from the Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded. They are marked "not for use".

The other memorabilia in the cache is in itself hugely valuable to collectors. It includes hundreds of photographs taken of the Beatles at the height of Beatlemania along with a mountain of recording studio documentation relating to their recordings. Some of the items bear original signatures of members of the group.

Mr Claughton is now planning to sell the material in individual lots over an Internet site - www.beatles-photos.org - he has set up.