Pranksters dressed their work colleague as a banana, attached a sign to him which said “abuse me” and tied him to a lamppost on a main road – before running off.

But the prank went wrong when Sussex Police turned up.

The victim, Wayne Price from Bognor, was left taped to the post in the middle of the roundabout at the junction of the A27 and the A29 yesterday morning.

His friend, who asked not to be named, giggled as he told how he and a group of friends – who all work for scaffolding company NJS Group in Chichester – plotted the prank as revenge for tricks Mr Price has played on them in the past.

He admitted he did not expect the police – with their blue lights flashing – to respond.

The friend, a director at NJS, said the prank was organised for fellow director Mr Price’s 40th birthday.

He told The Argus: “To be honest, Wayne is a right prankster.

“While I was in Dubai he scaffolded my entire house. That’s the kind of thing he does.

“On mine and another friend’s birthday he handed out leaflets around the country with our mobile numbers on and a note saying, ‘Call and say happy birthday’.

“We planned our trick to happen when we all met for breakfast at a Little Chef cafe for Wayne’s birthday. Initially we were just going to dress him as a banana. Then we thought we would tie him up.

“Finally we thought, ‘let’s just leave him there’.

“We’ve got his keys and his phone. We didn’t think the police would be called.”

ITV worker Simon Hardwick, 33, of Brighton, drove past the scene at 10am and saw Mr Price tied to the lamppost.

He said: “There were police cars one unmarked and one marked. They had their lights flashing.

“Traffic was building up and then I saw what it was – a man dressed as a banana tied to a lamppost.

“Poor bloke.”

A Little Chef worker revealed how friends of Mr Price’s gave her their number so she could contact them before they scarpered.

She said: “They come in a lot and Wayne really is the joker of the group.

“It really was funny.”

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “Police were called to the A27 at Fontwell at 9.45am to reports of a man dressed as Bananaman and tied to a lamppost on the round- about on Friday

“It is believed this was a 40th birthday prank. The man was freed by 10am.”