A reward of £1,000 has been put up for the safe return of a classic camper van, stolen from the home of an elderly Ditton man.

The rare Ford Thames 400E camper was taken from John Farrer’s drive in Priory Grove in the early hours of Saturday, December 19.

The 87-year-old has owned the vehicle, which is an unusual shade of green, since 1966 and has travelled over the UK and Europe in it.

Mr Farrer’s son, Stephen, said: “It’s a very rare vehicle. It holds a lifetime of memories. It’s priceless.

“Insurance pay outs and the like mean nothing in this instance. We just all really want to see it returned.

“Anywhere he could drive to in the van, he would. It’s been to Spain, Switzerland, Italy – a lot of mainland Europe.”

It is fitted with a pop-up roof revealing a different shade of green underneath and has been repaired on the bottom of the passenger door, which will help it stand out.

It also has a number of stickers on the windows and windscreen including ones for the Dormobile owners’ club and bears the name of Mr Farrer’s late wife, Renee, on the back.

Stephen said: “We lost mum on December 22, 2002, so Christmas isn’t a very good time for dad anyway and now they’ve taken this away from him as well.”

Friends of the family say there will be a reward of £1,000 for any information leading to the vehicle’s safe return.

Stephen has appealed to anyone who was driving in the area at the time to step forward. He also said it’s very unlikely the vehicle was driven.

He said: “It’s such a well known vehicle in the area. It’s also very noisy, so it would almost certainly have been covered on the back of a trailer or in a large horse box.”