Scrooge criminals took the festive glitter off Christmas in parts of the Ongar district with a spate of thefts over the holidays.

Thieves who failed in a bid to hotwire a lorry in Toot Hill made off with a £5,000 van instead.

The raiders caused £50 damage to a metal gate as they broke into Station Bridge House in Blake Hall Road. When they failed to start a seven-ton Leyland Road Runner lorry they stole a white VW van, registration number M943 VHJ.

In a separate incident, a black pick-up cover worth £200 has been taken from a vehicle parked in Berwick Lane, Stanford Rivers.

Equipment worth a total of £2,000 was stolen in a raid on a steel lock-up at Fyfield Hall, Fyfield. Missing are a generator, a chainsaw, a skillsaw and various hand tools.

Damage totalling £100 was caused when thieves stole a £650 red and silver Honda lawnmower from a shed in Oak Hill Road, Stapleford Abbotts.

At High Laver raiders stole nine 25-kilo bags of feed worth £50 after breaking into an outbuilding at Threshers Bush Poultry Farm.

And police are looking for a green-fingered robber who took an ornamental wheelbarrow, complete with a potted shrub, from the front garden of a home in School Green Lane, North Weald.

Vandals have also been busy during the school holiday. Two primary schools in Ongar were attacked and a total of £225 damage caused.

A rock was hurled through an office window at Springfield School in Stondon Road and another window was broken at Chipping Ongar Primary in Greensted Road.

Police are appealing for information about any of the incidents. Contact Ongar on 01277 362013, Epping on 01992 561212 or the Neighbourhood Action Line on 01992 576161.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.