More than 30 fish have died after vandals poured petrol into a charity pond at a water garden centre over the weekend.

Greenhouse Water Gardens in Chase Cross Road, Collier Row was targetted between late Sunday June 12 and the early hours of Monday June 13.

Manager at the centre, Matt Sands said: “Whoever did this are absolute scum bags.

“The biggest loser in this is going to be the charity because the money made from the sale of those fish were all going to be donated to charity.”

Matt, was alerted when he came into work and found that around 30 fish were floating at the top of the pond.

When he looked closer he noticed a liquid substance like petrol had been poured into the water.

The surviving fish were taken out of the polluted pond and transfered into fresh water, but they also later died.

Matt’s wife, Sarah, who also runs the family business, said: “Some people think that it is only fish that have been destroyed but they are still living creatures and it is annoying that someone has done this because they are bored.”

Two weeks ago a vandal walked into the centre and when the staff were distracted, picked up a terrapin and threw it onto the road.

Matt said: “It was terrible; it was one of our customers who came into the shop and told us that they thought that one of our terrapins had escaped and got run over by a car.

“But when we got out we saw what had happened.”

Most of the fish in the pond were donated to the centre, who then sold them to people with all of the profits going to St Francis Hospice.

Work on clearing the ponds is set to run into hundreds of pounds.

A police spokesman is looking into the incident.

Anyone with information should call Romford police station on: 0300 123 12 12