A FATHER has cried foul after discovering some winning poems in the Essex Young Poet of the Year competition were ripped off.

Lewis Lovejoy’s daughter entered the competition, but was pipped to the post in the 2014 under-14 category.

But on the way home from the awards ceremony, Mr Lovejoy’s daughter told her dad she recognised some of the competition’s winning poems.

So when he got home to Brightlingsea, Mr Lovejoy put a few lines of the poems into Google and found they had been taken straight from a poetry website.

The judging committee has since apologised and vowed measures would be put in place to stop plagiarism in the future.

Mr Lovejoy, 46, said: “I was dismayed when we found out, so we contacted the judging panel.

“I don’t normally get involved in things like this, but I feel it is really unfair on all the young poets who worked hard and didn’t cheat."

An Essex Young Poet of the Year spokesman said it was saddened to discover the plagiarism.

He said each poem was submitted through the individual child’s school and teachers had not sifted through the entries “sufficiently vigorously”, adding: “Perhaps, as judges, we too have been guilty of attributing a little too much trust in our processes.”

Renewed checks will be put in place for this year’s competition, including reminding schools of their obligations and doublechecking winners’ work before the awards are given out.