A holiday couple have told of the frightening moment they woke up in their hotel room to find an intruder leaning over them in bed.

Ben Watts, of Buckland Road, Maidstone, and his girlfriend Cheryl Martin were looking forward to enjoying a relaxing break at Sal, one of the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of West Africa, where they had booked into the all-inclusive 5-star Riu Hotel.

But three days into the holiday, an intruder broke into their room at 3am.

Mr Watts said: “Cheryl woke up to find this man leaning over her, inches from her face.

“She screamed, which of course woke me up.

“She said: ‘Ben, someone’s in the room!’

“I couldn’t see him at first – it was dark, but then I did.”

“We locked eyes for a moment, but then he ran, and bolted over the wall of our verandah and disappeared.

“I attempted to give chase, but he had gone.”

Mr Watts, 41, a project manager with an air-conditioning firm based in London, said: “That was scary enough, but then our troubles began.”

They found the man had taken their watches, jewellery, wallets and two Mulberry bags.

He said: “During the day we were locking everything up in the hotel safe, but that evening we had just come home and taken everything off and left it on the bedside table.”

“We were left without any money, and because he had taken her bag, Cheryl was also left without the medication that she needs to take daily.”

The couple at once informed the hotel security and the reception was helpful, paying for the taxi to take them into town to report the theft at the local police station.

Mr Watts said: “It was hard. There was a language problem, because it’s a Portuguese-speaking island.

“We spent the next three days going to and fro to the police station. It really wasn’t a holiday after that.”

The couple have slammed their holiday tour operator, Tui, for failing to help them.

We were left entirely on our own

He said: “We contacted them as soon as we could, but they did nothing to help us. They didn’t help with the police, with the money, or with a doctor.

“We were left entirely on our own.”

Mr Watts was fortunately able to get his bank to send money to his Apple Pay account on his i-Phone.

He said: “The one thing the man didn’t take was our mobile phones – though he took the charging lead!”

Altogether the couple think the value of the items stolen was in excess of £12,000. Mr Watts said: “My watch was a Tag, worth about £5,000, and the Mulberry bags were about £2,000 each.”

We have referred the couple to The Centre for Crisis Psychology

There has been no arrest of the thief, who ran off leaving his shoes on the couple’s patio.

Mr Watts said: “It seems he got in through the French doors leading to the verandah, but we don’t know how, because both Cheryl and I are certain we bolted them before we went to bed.”

Miss Martin, 44, from Whitstable, has struggled to recover from the experience. She has been off work with stress since they returned from the holiday at the end of June.

Mr Watts said: “Since we’ve been back, Tui have given us a £200 compensation payment.

“They should have helped us at the time. They surely have a duty of care to their customers.

“I want to tell people what happened to warn them, because we’re not the only ones, another couple were robbed at the hotel the same week as us.”

Meanwhile, Mr Watts has been able to see where the thief is.

He said: “I have a tracker on my Airpad which he also took. It is moving around the shanty town area of Cape Verde. I have told the local police, but I get the impression they are a bit reluctant to go in there.”

A spokesman for TUI said: “We were extremely concerned to hear about Mr Watts’ and Ms Martin’s experience in Cape Verde. We would like to reassure customers that incidents like this are very rare.

“After being made aware of the incident, our on-site hotel staff spoke with the couple and arranged for them to go to the police station. Unfortunately, no staff were available to go with them at the time of the incident. A payment of goodwill was made to them.

“We have also referred the couple to The Centre for Crisis Psychology funded by TUI, to offer support if needed.”