Vandals have gone on a Jackass-style golf cart rampage, causing thousands of pounds-worth of damage to an idyllic country club course.

Police are hunting the gang after they broke into the golf club's garage early yesterday morning, smashed the dashboards on four carts and then hot-wired them.

They then proceeded to wreak a trail of devastation, driving them across the course - ripping up saplings, smashing down flags, demolishing fences and leaving tyre tracks across the greens at Consett Golf Club in Durham.

A similar scenario was enacted recently in the film version of the anarchic American TV show Jackass and police say they cannot rule out the possibility that the vandalism may have been inspired by the movie

PC Phil Hinton of said: "When I went to the course and saw the damage , the first thing that came to mind was the scene in jackass. The course has been left in ruins and the club officials are, as you would expect, absolutely

devastated. "It will take a great deal of time and money to repair the damage."