Well-wishers have pledged to replace art supplies stolen from an autistic teenager.

Kent property tycoon Fergus Wilson – the poster boy for bad landlords – offered a £1,000 reward for information leading to a prosecution.

Samuel Hayward was sitting in his mum’s car outside their Canterbury home when teenage thieves swiped his art materials.

WATCH: Property Tycoon Fergus Wilson offers reward to find art thieves

Mr Wilson, 70, who lives near Maidstone and owns 700 homes, said: “The situation is with this young man Sam Hayward, that it’s absolutely despicable what’s happened with these people, said to be two girls have stolen his art materials.

“He is an autistic lad.

“It really is a dreadful situation.

“Over the years I’ve put various rewards up - sometimes they’ve been successful and led to a prosecution other times they’ve been unsuccessful.

“But I hope everyone listening to this video will agree with me that these people need to be caught.

“For their own sake they must understand they can’t run around doing this.

“And also for the sake of this lad I’m going to pay for the art materials to be replaced.

“And I’m going to put up a thousand pounds for the successful prosecution for the person (or) persons responsible.

“If you as a viewer have any idea who it is then report it to the police.”

Mr Wilson hit headlines last week after ordering hundreds of people out of their homes.

Mr Hayward, 19, who has severe autism and cannot speak, had just bought the items from The Range with Christmas money.

Folkestone-based painter Rod Bere also offered to buy new supplies.

The 77-year-old said two women attacked him in August and stole his mobile phone, He said: “I felt very sad.

“These things shouldn’t happen, but they do, so I want to do what I can to help.

“I’m not a wealthy person, but I know how much art means to me - it’s something I wanted to do all my life.

“It obviously means a lot to him.

“It could give him a living, if he was to continue with it.”

Sam’s mum Kelly said she and her family were “overwhelmed” by people’s generosity.

“When it happened, I felt like people can be evil.

“This has just restored my faith in human beings a little bit more.

“Hopefully, it will also raise awareness and when people come across kids like Sam in public, they can be a bit kinder and a little bit more aware of how difficult things can be for them.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or to remain anonymous Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.