A UFO expert has this week quashed a Bridgwater man's claims that he snapped a mystery object hovering in the skies above his home.

As reported last week Mercury reader Darren Woodland handed over photographs, which he believed showed a silver barrel-like craft taken from his back garden in Wembdon on Christmas Day.

Darren, a delivery driver, snapped the object on his mobile phone and said he couldn't tell what it was until he had the photo blown up and printed out.

However lead investigator of the Swindon UFO Research organisation told the Mercury he believed the photo could be a 'fake'.

He said: “The lighting conditions are wrong as well as a few other key factors in the image - such as focus levels and depth of field.

“It is possible it could be some kind of processing anomaly or internal error or reflection within the camera which makes the image appear to have been manipulated in a rather crude manner.”