“It was about six o’clock that evening, we went back to the concierge and said, can we have the van back? To which he said, ‘we’re very sorry, but you can’t, because the stacking system has malfunctioned’,” Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas was reassured his van would soon be returned, so he and company co-owner Steve Davies, decided to temporarily hire another van at a cost of £800 a month.

Mr Davies said: “We were told it’s just a bit further away. So we carried on renting, expecting to get the van back, but it never did. We get the occasional update, but we call them constantly to say, ‘what’s the news? what’s happening?’ And we get little or no response.”

The High Wycombe-based company’s costs continued to mount, hiring the second vehicle while also paying off the monthly loan for the trapped van.

Mr Davies said: “After a couple of years of renting, we decided we can’t afford to do this anymore, so we gave the hire van back and took out another loan to buy a second van. In total I estimate we are currently about £40,000 out of pocket.”