Button hit headlines on Friday (07Aug15) when a front-page report in British newspaper The Sun revealed he and his model wife Jessica Michibata had been targeted by thieves during a vacation in Saint-Tropez, France.

The couple lost $480,000 (£300,000) worth of belongings in the raid, including Michibata's $320,000 (£250,000) engagement ring, and the publication quoted a source who alleged police told the shocked victims that the thieves had pumped anaesthetic gas through air conditioning vents at the property to knock them out.

However, within hours of the report being published, Britain's eminent Royal College of Anaesthetists was casting doubt on the scenario, and suggested previous reports of other victims being targeted while sleeping in motor homes in France are also not feasible.

A spokeswoman for the Royal College of Anaesthetists says, "Our view is that it is very unlikely because it would be so impractical. You would need to use a truckload of gas, and that amount would be phenomenally expensive to obtain. One has to ask why anyone would spend so much money on what is such an impractical method."

Consultant anaesthetist Dr. Liam Brennan added that using nitrous oxide to incapacitate victims would be impossible because it is so weak.

He tells Sky News, "It simply would not be possible to pump enough into that environment of a house to be able to produce that effect. I think the use of nitrous oxide would be an absolute non-starter in this respect. I think the concentrations that would be required would be enormous. It just wouldn't be possible."