Care home staff and residents have been left ‘mortified’ after a mini bus was stolen and jeopardising their Christmas plans.

The £18,600 silver Ford Transit minibus was bought by Rough Lee House care home in Accrington using donations and funds raised to celebrate their 30th anniversary.

Lancashire Police said the minibus was stolen stolen sometime between 10pm on Thursday, November 5 and 10am on Friday, November 6.

Andrea Buckley, manager of the care home on Rough Lee Road in Accrington, said everyone is ‘really upset and shocked’ by the theft.

She said: “We think it was stolen on Friday morning but we didn’t notice it until Tuesday morning because it is quite a large car park and it was down on the bottom part.

“It will have quite a large impact on the residents as we were planning to take 14 of them out on Christmas day for dinner.

“We had only recently just purchased it. It cost us £18,600 and we spent another £6,000 on getting it adapted.

“We are a registered charity and we are really stuck without it.

“I’m just looking for what I can do without it. We are all really shocked and really upset.”

A silver Ford Transit minibus which was stolen from Rough Lee House care home in Accrington.

Andrea said the care home is currently celebrating their 30th anniversary and to commemorate the occasion started a campaign last year to raise £30,000.

A total of £15,000 has been raised so far with some of the money being put towards buying the minibus and the rest coming from donations.

Andrea said: “We have just had a few really good trips out recently to the Blackpool illuminations and we use to minibus do daily trips and other events.

“The residents were really upset when they found out, mortified actually.

“We do solely rely on donations to run our various events.

“It’s really low what these people have done. They will have seen that it has been adapted so I don’t think it could be much use to anybody.

“They could have just stolen it for parts. It’s really sad.”

A silver Ford Transit minibus which was stolen from Rough Lee House care home in Accrington.

A police spokesperson said: “We were called at 12.15pm on November 10 to reports that a minibus had been stolen from the driveway of the care home.”

Anyone with information call police on 101 quoting log number 513 of November 10.