Bungling burglars who made off with hundreds of stolen Christmas trees were thwarted when their getaway van ran out of fuel.

The gang broke into the yard of Kebur, a company supplying paving and landscaping materials, in Lynchford Lane, North Camp, late at night on Sunday last week.

The gang of three men spent around two hours loading up two of the company’s own vans with most of its stock of 200 Christmas trees, before hot-wiring the vans and smashing their way out of the yard.

However, one of the two stolen Nissan Cabstar pick-up trucks only made it a few miles along the A331 Blackwater Valley Road when it ran out of diesel, and its dim-witted driver was forced to abandon it beside the road by an industrial estate in Frimley.

Luckily for those whose Christmas trees were on order from the family-run business, police recovered the vehicle and its festive contents.

Tony Lane, one of the company’s owners, said CCTV cameras had caught the thieves in action breaking into the yard.

The burglars strapped fence panels onto the sides of the trucks and crammed around 80 trees into the back of each.

The gang then had to start up a digger to move some building materials blocking the main gate and smashed the immobiliser from another vehilce that had been parked in the way as a security measure, before hot-wiring the trucks and making their getaway at 1.30am on December 1.

Surrey police found the abandoned truck on the A331 around two hours later, and contacted Mr Lane.

“Luckily it was left with no diesel in it,” he said.

The company was allowed to pick up the stock from the back of the truck from the McAllisters vehicle recovery compound in Aldershot before it was taken away for forensic examination by the police.

The other truck was recovered empty a few days later in a remote car park near Winchfield. While the burglars’ mistake has left the company with some Christmas trees to sell, the theft of 80 trees, worth £2,400 would be leaving some families disappointed, Mr Lane said.

“There will be some people who are diappointed, because we have only got half our usual stock,” he said. Thankfully Christmas will not be cancelled. We are still here and will be carrying on.”

Mr Lane added that luckily for his young son, he had managed to take a Christmas tree home to his family before the thieves struck.

“They are lovely trees. My little son Josh would have been rather tearful if we hadn’t managed to get one,” he said.

Anyone with information should call police on 0845 045 45 45.