A thief stole charity donations for injured war heroes from a Christmas light show and now the Oxford Mail needs you to name him.

The hooded youngster took the donation bucket, which was chained to a fence outside Martin and Debbie Scarrott’s home in North Way, Barton, Oxford, at about 9.30pm on Monday.

He is seen in images from the couple’s CCTV camera looking at the bucket, walking away and then returning seconds later with his hood up to steal £50 of donations before walking off in the direction of Barton Village Road.

Last night, Mr and Mrs Scarrott urged the public to identify him. Disabled Mr Scarrott, 45, said: “This despicable youth has come along and yanked the bucket and stolen it from the garden.

“All the money was going to go to the heroes. Many of them are in Afghanistan for Christmas. It is a really good cause and I cannot believe he has done this at Christmas.

“He was brazen enough to do it right underneath the sign saying the garden is being monitored with CCTV.

“I do not think he would have had the bucket for long, he probably dumped it, so I want to know if anyone has seen it.

“I found the lid just down the road in the hedge with a footprint on it.”

The couple had chained the bucket to their garden fence so passing motorists could donate cash to injured servicemen’s charity Help for Heroes if they liked their Christmas display.

They have spent hundreds of pounds lighting up their ground-floor flat and garden with Christmas lights, a snowman, reindeer, and plastic penguins for the past two years.

Mr Scarrott said it cost the couple between £10 and £20 a fortnight to pay for the electricity to power the spectacle.

Former Britain’s Got Talent contestant Fabia Cerra, from Blackbird Leys, turned on the lights at the start of December.

Father-of-two Mr Scarrott said: “We have been collecting for charity at Christmas for the last three years and this has never happened. I can’t believe this person.

“I have got the worry now about how I am going to collect the money. I can’t stand at the top of the driveway.”

A Help for Heroes spokesman said: “That people choose to fraudulently and greedily take funds for their own use, that are given generously by the British public intended to support the wounded is unforgivable.”

Police confirmed they were investigating the theft of the bucket.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information should call police on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.