A van that which was stolen containing 2,500 pies has been found abandoned and its cargo too damaged to eat.

The Michelin-starred chef Tommy Banks had appealed to thieves to “do the right thing” and give the van’s contents, which also included custard and gravy, to people in need.

The refrigerated van was stolen from a business park in Melmerby, near Ripon, in North Yorkshire over the weekend.

Banks, who owns two restaurants and a pub in Yorkshire, posted on social media on Monday to say the van had been stolen.

It contained £25,000 of stock, he said, including 2,500 pies that had his name on them.

“If you are the thieves and read this I urge you to the drop the pies off somewhere,” Banks said. “So we can at least give them to people who need food and they are not wasted.”

On Tuesday, North Yorkshire police said the vehicle, a white Fiat Ducato van, had been found abandoned with false number plates on Friday 29 November.

It was recovered by Cleveland police, a neighbouring force, in the Hemlington area of Middlesbrough.

In a “final pie” update on Tuesday, Banks said the van had been badly damaged and the pies inside were also damaged. Both the van and the pies would have to be written off, he said.

“It’s just so much waste,” he said in a video on Instagram. “It’s just rubbish. Sorry, it’s not a happier ending to this story.

Cleveland police said the abandoned van was found at 11.30pm on Friday with false plates and without signage.

A spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the owner has now been reunited with his van, but just as sad as everyone else to hear that the tasty pies in the van have sadly perished.”

The pies – steak and ale; turkey and cranberry; and butternut squash – had been destined for Banks’s pop-pie stall at York Christmas market.

Banks told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that he was trying to find humour in what had happened. “I’m just imagining these guys just thieved a van and when they’ve opened up the back and found 2,500 pies and custard and gravy in it and how on Earth are they going to move that?

“They’ve got my name written all over them so they’re not really a very saleable object I don’t think.”