It doesn't take Columbo to uncover numerous clear examples of light-fingeredness by disabled-mocking TV unfunny-man Ricky Gervais. Back in 2004 he riped off of my manuscript in the making of Flanimals, and it turns out I'm not the only one. Question marks hang over the originality of all of Gervais' productions. Far from writing and producing his own material, as he claims, Gervais appears to be a pathological kleptomaniac. Past thievery includes Extras, which was directly stolen ; concept, title and setting from award winning Australian pilot The Extra , conceived by Adam Wells and directed by Darren Ashton in 1999, but by far the worst and the most recent known example of theft is from a script entitled Good Grief from writer Ben Russel in the making of Afterlife . Prior to all this Gervais is no stranger to a life of crime. Before his involvement in bigtime script robbery he pilfered The Off...

I  will never forget that morning back in 2004 when my phone started ringing with calls telling me that Ricky Gervais had ripped off my book,  Captain Pottie's Wildlife Encyclopaedia . ISBN 954820827X, 2000. He'd been on TV plugging the upcoming release of   Flanimals  but I had no interest in him so hadn’t taken much notice. It sounded crazy. Why would someone who'd just had massive hit TV series need to steal someone else's work? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing so headed down to the nearest bookshop to check it out for myself. At first glance the packaging and style were very different. Mine a pocket-sized mock-Victorian Encyclopaedia, understated and slightly bonkers, his, big, brash, noisy and garish, the only similarity being that they were both bestiaries, collections of bizarre imaginary creatures. Then I opened it up and had a look inside: I felt physically sick, it was like a kick in the stomach. I'd put a lot of love into my book. In the ...