Heartless thieves stole money from a family who decorated their house with Christmas lights to support a good cause.

David and Karan Harris, from Crossways, were raising money for Moore Activity Day Care, based in East Burton, a centre for adults with learning disabilities. The couple’s son, Daniel, 31, who has Down’s syndrome, attends the facility.

A charity box which passers-by were encouraged to put donations into was taken from their front fence overnight on Wednesday.

The couple are well-known for having extravagant Christmas decorations on the front of their house in Mount Skippet Way.

In exchange, the couple ask for donations via a charity box screwed to the fence. The box is believed to have been taken between 9.30pm on Wednesday evening and 9.30am on Thursday morning.

The family have since put up a notice outside their home addressed to the thieves.

David said: “We have had a charity box every year we have done our lights. We’ve given to different causes each year.

“We’re very disappointed in people. We’ve done this for ten years and this is the first time we have had any problems like that.

“We hadn’t emptied it yet this year. There were a few pound coins in there and lots of change. There could have been £20, there could have been £80.

“If people know who it was let the police know and they can deal with it.”

Karan said of Moore Activity Day Care: “It’s the best day care we have ever got for Daniel. They are just so brilliant. They do so much there and different types of activities. He just absolutely loves it.

“We were trying to explain to him what had happened. He said, ‘I hope they realise they’ll be on Santa’s naughty list now.’”

Karan said they were originally planning to take the charity box to Moore Activity Day Care and count donations with the service users.

Now the couple have lost a way of collecting money for the centre, but David said the incident would not deter them.

He said: “They are not going to beat us.

“We are going to find another way of people donating if they want to. We posted on one of the Facebook sites. There’s been a fantastic response from it.”

Anyone with information should contact Dorset Police in confidence on 101, quoting the incident number 18:194.