Ram raiders smashed a car into a shop window on bonfire night before a luxury Porsche 4x4 was found abandoned half a mile away.

Your Local Guardian:

Raided: Carpet Select in Wallington

But the incompetent thieves stole only fake cardboard cut-outs of fireworks instead of the real thing, in a caper that shop staff told the Sutton Guardian was 'like something out of Only Fools and Horses'.

Carpet Select, in Stafford Road, Wallington, was targeted at about 4.30am today in what Sutton police called a "ram raid".

Shop worker James Symes, 22, said: "I had heard that something bad had happened, but I was shocked when I saw it was our shop that had been crashed into.

"But, it's pretty comical that they assumed they were stealing real fireworks from the shop.

"They have gone through all the effort to steal a car, ram into the shop and steal cardboard mock-ups of fireworks, which were there for decoration.

"It's the sort of thing that you would see in Only Fools and Horses."

Police were called shortly before 8am today after a black Porsche Cayenne turned up in Spooner Walk, about half a mile from the shop.

The car, with a damaged boot, was taken away for forensic analysis, Sutton police said.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 111 555.