Fly thieves steal Union flag – and its 32ft pole

In what had all the hallmarks of carefully planned and executed raid, the gang of thieves struck in the dead of night at the Old Mill Inn at Maryculter, near Aberdeen, on the eve of a dinner held by the West Aberdeenshire Conservative Association.

They fled with the large Union flag that usually flutters proudly in the hotel grounds.

The thieves even escaped with the lengthy glass-fibre pole on which the flag had been mounted, leaving a cryptic note where it once stood.

It read: "You have been victim of the Society for Removing Union Jacks from Scotland."

Yesterday, a bemused Mike French, part-owner of the busy rural hotel on the South Deeside Road, said he had been left dumfounded by the bizarre theft.

He said: "It's not as if we have no Scottish flag flying at the inn. We have always had a Lion Rampant flying from a pole on the main building."

Mr French went on: "When you are a hotelier, you are non-political and non-religious. Everybody is welcome here. You don't worry about anyone's creed, colour or religion. Everyone is welcome as long as they have a shilling in their pocket."

He explained that the Old Mill had been the victim of similar theft more than two years ago in the run-up to the last elections for the Scottish Parliament, when a previous Union flag was swapped for a small saltire. He said: "It annoyed me a bit at the time, but I changed it back for another Union flag and thought no more about it."

But in the early hours of last Friday – on the eve of the Tory dinner where former Conservative Scottish secretary Lord Forsyth was the guest speaker – flag thieves struck again.

"When I returned to the pub on the Friday morning, I spotted right away that the whole flagpole was gone," Mr French said. "All I could see was a small piece of board with a note attached."