Festive thieves have swiped 93 Christmas trees worth £1,500 from a farm shop in Challock.

The Barn Shop on Canterbury Road is run by sisters Val Smith and Tina Coburn, who were left dumbstruck when they opened up on Monday morning and discovered the trees and the netting machine had been stolen overnight.

Miss Smith said: "We shut up on Sunday night at about 4pm and when I arrived on Monday morning just before 8am I noticed all the trees were gone. There was a gaping hole in the fence so they must have got them out through there but they took the netting machine as well."

"It’s just unbelievable really. I think it will be hard to get them back. You see people selling them on the side of the road but you just wouldn’t know whether it was kosher or not."

The trees varied in size from 3ft up to 7ft.

It is not the first time the shop, which also sells cheeses, pies and preserves, has been targeted. Back in September two 6ft advertising signs were stolen and a third one vandalised.