AN owner of a pub has been left disgusted after a thief stole money which was to be donated to a hospice that cares for people in their last days.

Rob Scahill, of The Orange Tree in Baldock noticed a jar which he kept at the end of the bar had gone missing on Thursday.

The money, which was due to be donated to Garden House Hospice in Letchworth GC, had around £100 in it.

Every year the 46-year-old holds a competition for his customers to have the chance to guess how much money is in the jar.

Half of the proceeds from the competition go towards Mr Scahill’s sister’s breast cancer memorial fund with the rest going to the hospice.

The money in the jar had been a year long accumulation of loose change from the till.

Mr Scahill who has been running the pub for more than two years said: “I am utterly disgusted; we’re a very chilled out pub so I don’t like to lock anything to the bar or keep things behind the bar. I don’t even have CCTV in here.

“I didn’t know it had gone missing because I just assumed that someone had moved it but after asking around I realised it has been taken.”

Mr Scahill said the cash was in a four-and-a-half litre whisky bottle.

“I’m not sure how they would have been able to pick the bottle up because it was quite heavy and I have no idea how we missed it.”

The sum of £100 has been donated to the hospice by a long- standing friend of Mr Scahill to replace the money in the bottle.

The owner of the Norton Road pub said he will be filling up another bottle and will be running the same competition to donate the money to the hospice.