The puppets went to Buckingham Palace when Mr Styles got his MBE

John Styles, from Sidcup in Kent, was given the award in the New Year's Honours List.

Mr Styles took the puppets, which he has used for 50 years, to Buckingham Palace for his investiture last month.

The puppets were in his car when it was stolen from outside his home on Tuesday - and he said he hoped Mr Punch would put a curse on the thieves.

Mr Styles also lost his Punch and Judy "theatre" and all his props when his Jaguar was taken at about 1530 BST.

The 69-year-old said he was unloading shopping from his car when he was approached by a young man asking for directions.

It was very much an opportunist thing - being a magician it was a trick that baffled me John Styles

He said he feared the man followed him indoors, picked his spare keys up off the table and used them to drive off the car once Mr Styles and his wife were inside the house with the door shut.

Mr Styles said: "It was very much an opportunist thing - being a magician it was a trick that baffled me.

"I am frustrated that someone could do this, I only hope that Mr Punch puts his curse on them.

"I have got other puppets, but I had used those ones for years, they have travelled all over the world, they are in films and on television."

He said he had publicised the theft in the hope of getting Punch and Judy back.

"It was the car he was after - when he looks at the boxes he will be a bit puzzled," he said.

The car, a navy blue Jaguar, has two distinctive emblems on it - a red Magic Circle badge and the blue insignia of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.