Thieves have stolen a disabled man's electric wheelchair.

Alf Harrison, 76, of Chamley Court, Holland-on-Sea, was at The Tavern in the town with his son-in-law Michael Bennett when the theft happened.

The wheelchair, worth about £1,000, had been left outside. Mr Bennett said: "We were about to go home at 10.30pm and we found it missing."

Mr Bennett gave a statement to the police. But he said then the pub landlord John Hall had a tip off the wheelchair had turned up in Fleetwood Avenue about half a mile away.

Mr Hall went to collect it in his car and brought it back - but the battery worth £150 was still missing.

Mr Bennett, of Bedford Road, Clacton, said: "I went to switch it on and it didn't move. I looked down and the battery was gone."

He said they would now have to buy a new battery for the wheelchair. I feel so incensed. How can any low-life stoop to this level and take a wheelchair," he added.

Insp Richard Day, of Clacton police, said: "It was a vulnerable victim which is particularly despicable. A lot of disabled people are very reliant on their wheelchairs."

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