Police have apologised for failing to act after vandals were caught on CCTV cameras damaging a car.

It had been left for repairs at Dave and Paul's Garage, Portslade, which had been plagued by thefts and vandalism to customers' cars.

Owner Dave Strong spent £2,000 installing surveillance cameras.

A customer's car was completely stripped on the first weekend the cameras were switched on at the garage in Freemans Road.

Mr Strong discovered the wrecked vehicle when he arrived at work on November 26 and checked his CCTV footage.

The culprits could clearly be seen removing parts from the car and Mr Strong phoned the police.

He said: "We reported it straight away and were given a crime number and told someone would be round to investigate.

"That was 14 days ago and we haven't seen any sign of a police officer.

"It makes a mockery of us spending a lot of money to improve security.

"The police encourage you to call them as soon you discover a crime so that they can gather evidence while it is fresh.

"In this case they even had a video of the thieves but they have not done anything about it."

A police spokeswoman said: "We would like to apologise to Mr Strong for taking so long to respond to his call.

"The case was assigned to an officer who is away on holiday. It seems there has been a communications breakdown.

"We have instructed a response car to pick up the video today."