Thieves rammed a skip lorry through the wrought iron gates of a Mitcham merchant’s yard before using the stolen vehicle for a smash-and-grab raid on a Thornton Heath supermarket.

The truck was taken from Goat Road just after midnight on Monday morning and driven to Tesco in London Road, where it was used to rip a cash point from the shop front.

Police said the ATM was then loaded into a white van outside the store, where the truck was then abandoned.

Officers searching for four culprits have not revealed how much cash was taken during the raid, which happened at about 1.45am. However the van was discovered abandoned in Lancaster Avenue in Mitcham shortly after the theft and the ATM recovered from inside.

Lee Weston, owner of the stolen skip truck, said: “I was woken up at 3am by police at my front door asking if I knew where my truck was. I had no idea it had been taken and I still don’t know where it is now.

“The whole thing is so frustrating and I’m pretty angry about it, but what can you do?”

Police sealed off the merchant’s yard until 10.30am on Monday as officers investigated the scene.

Kevin Meehan, 42, director of Linney Fencing in Goat Road, claimed it was not the first time the yard had been targeted by criminals.

He said: “About three years ago one of our fork lift trucks was taken to smash through our premises and £2,000 or £3,000 worth of materials were loaded on to a truck. It just makes you think, what’s the world coming to?”

He added in 2003, robbers held staff at gun point on pay day, trying to steal their wages.

Anyone with information about Monday’s incident should contact Croydon's Burglary Squad on 020 8649 1336 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Three of the four people police are hunting were seen making off from the abandoned van, containing the cash point, running from Lancaster Avenue in the direction of Mitcham Common.