A SOUTH East Coast Ambulance Service vehicle may have been written off after it was stolen from an ambulance station.

The response vehicle was taken after someone broke into the Herne Bay ambulance station at about 3am on Sunday.

The three-year-old Vauxhall Vectra, which was badly damaged, was discovered in a ditch on the Whitstable bends of Whitstable Road, Whitstable.

Support service manager Nick Sinclair said: “This was a despicable act which has deprived the Herne Bay and Thanet area of a response vehicle and potentially put the lives of people at risk.

“The vehicle which would have remained in operational use for another year is now likely to be written off by insurers.”

In the last 10 years, three response cars and an ambulance have been stolen from the service in Kent.

A 35-year-old man from Canterbury was arrested close to where the vehicle was found on suspicion of aggravated vehicle taking and other driving offences.

He has been bailed to return to Canterbury Police Station on Wednesday, March 7.