THIEVES who had no luck pinching a van part ended up trashing it instead.

Ken Garrard hoped installing an anti-theft cage around his vehicle’s catalytic converter would prevent it being stolen for the fourth time.

It did, but as this CCTV footage shows, the disappointed vandals decided to trash the Ford van instead, leaving Mr Garrard with a repair bill of thousands of pounds.

Mr Garrard, a director of the family-run Furniture Zone, in Turkey Cock Lane, Stanway, said: “It feels vindictive.

“They have turned up, they are not able to steal our property, so they decided they were just going to damage it.

“If we were a big corporation it wouldn’t have such an impact, but we are a small family-run business and we only have one van to deliver furniture.

“This is causing us an awful lot of harm.”

The company has had its catalytic converter stolen three times already, but managed to capture the would-be thieves in action during the latest attempt at about 8pm on Sunday night.

Mr Garrard, from Colchester, explained: “We have CCTV cameras and a motion-activated sensor, and up until 8.30pm no security light came on.

“However, you can see it looks like someone’s been under there with a torch because you can see someone moving with a pin prick of light under the van.”

The light disappears, after Mr Garrard believes the would-be thief realises he cannot steal the catalytic converter, but movement is picked up by the CCTV cameras a short time later.

He said: “The next thing you see is three lads working on the van, and then the light comes on and shows a fourth lad standing nearby with his hands in his pockets.

“Two of them are under the van with bricks, smashing away at the exhaust system.

“They then threw a brick at the windscreen, and dented the side panels of the van and drove off.”

The frustrated thieves caused more than £2,500 damage to the van, and will cost the company even more in the long-term.

Mr Garrard has released CCTV footage of the suspects and is hoping someone may have seen the men or have information about the theft.