A Horsforth man was pelted with stones as he tried to scare away vandals from his charity minibus.

John Hardcastle, co-ordinator and volunteer driver for the Horsforth Minibus Trust Fund took verbal abuse and was threatened with violence.

And it later emerged that the vandals were not even trying to steal the bus, but wanted to take a wing mirror for their own vehicle.

Now Mr Hardcastle has spoken out against the vandals, who broke the wing mirror off the bus when they realised they couldn't remove it properly.

He said: "It is not me I am upset or worried about, it is the elderly people who use the service.

"Why on earth would these people do this, it is disgraceful and it has cost us to have it repaired, which is all vital money to us."

The minibus is used to take pensioners to the shops, church and on day trips.

The bus collects the groups from their doors and drops them off again, and drivers help with shopping bags if needs be.

More than 80 pensioners use the service and see it as a lifeline to services in the region.

The incident happened at 1am on Wednesday, August 13 when a concerned neighbour of Mr Hardcastle's phoned him to tell him about the crime.

"I looked out of the window and thought they were trying to steal it," said Mr Hardcastle. "I ran outside barefoot and started shouting at them, asking what they thought they were doing.

"Then I realised that what I was doing wasn't that sensible. I'm 53 and he was in his early 20s, so it wasn't a good match.

"He picked up a stick and started shouting at me, at which point I thought I had better get out of there, but as I went back inside I was hit in the back by stones."

From inside his house on St James Walk, Mr Hardcastle realised what the vandals were trying to do.

"I couldn't believe it," he told the Wharfedale Observer.

"They had arrived in a van and they obviously just wanted the wing mirror for their van.

"Really you need special tools to get them off properly and this bloke was struggling, so when he realised he couldn't get it off he broke it.

"He could have just admitted defeat and left but he purposely broke the mirror so it was no use to anyone."

Police were quickly on the scene but did not find the suspects.