GENEROUS shop staff have refused to let thieves turn out of the Christmas lights and deprive a much-loved charity of money.

Couple Geoff and Tina Patchett, had created a Christmas light spectacular at their home in Wincanton Road, Redcar, and intended to give any donations from the public to the town's Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

However the lights and ornaments worth about £200 were stolen on Friday, December 5 so the much needed funds could not be raised.

The story caused an outcry, but now David Fryer, of Tesco Customer Services, has come came to the rescue and donated new lights.

At the same time, Mr Fryer arranged for highly desirable gifts including a brand new iPad Air and Nikon digital camera to be donated to the RNLI to be auctioned off for the cause.

Dave Cocks, from Redcar RNLI said: ‘When David Fryer from Tesco got in touch with us about the theft of the lights, he explained how they were going to help out by sending some replacement lights to Geoff and Tina so that they could continue with the display and keep on fundraising for us.

"Then he said he’d like to send something to the station that we could raffle or auction to raise even more money for our work. He was a bit coy about what he was sending and told us it would be a surprise.

"To be perfectly honest we were expecting perhaps some tins of biscuits or selection boxes, something like that. So when we opened the parcel and saw a brand-new iPad and digital camera, we were gobsmacked."

Mr Cocks explained the prizes would be auctioned through the group's Facebook page at Facebook.com/RedcarRNLI where bids can be made in secret. Anyone who can't access Facebook can leave a sealed bid at the lifeboat station by 9am on Sunday, December 21.

A reserve of £300 has been set for the iPad, and £225 for the camera equipment.