A Maroubra dad whose Easter egg hunts achieved legendary status after children failed to find a single egg in 10 years, has today apologised to his family, community and religion, after admitting he’s been cheating for years.

“The real reason no one ever found any Easter eggs is that I never hid any in the first place,” he said. “All I did was hide a dozen or so cartons of beer in the fridge so I could enjoy them uninterrupted while the kids spent a few days rummaging around outside.”

The statement marks a significant change in tone from previous years, when the father of three labelled children participating in the event “idiots” for failing to find any eggs.

“Technically they’re still idiots for not working out that I never hid any eggs in the first place, but I guess I could be partly to blame,” he said, adding that he planned to make up for the decade of neglect by treating his children to a chocolate egg each the moment they go on sale tomorrow.