This is the dramatic moment a furious shop owner unleashed a flying kick on alleged burglars stealing fuel from him in Thailand.

Chanapong Rojwattanathanakij, 33, and his neighbours staked out the suspected thieves from a restaurant opposite his store in Chonburi province, then sprung into action when he found them trespassing on his property at midnight on September 10.

CCTV footage shows the brave vendor confronting the thugs as they sneaked into a storage area filled with precious bottles of fuel.

The residents called the Klong Kiew Police Station to hand over the suspects.

Officers identified them as Thanapol Inyak, 19, his girlfriend Thirada, 19, and Amphol Choeichomplee, 20. The group allegedly admitted to the crime and told police they were driven to theft due to rising fuel prices in Thailand.

Thanapol said: 'Fuel is now 40 baht (1.12 USD) per litre. We couldn't afford a full tank. We had to endure having only 2 litres because we could only pay 100 baht (2.8 USD) each trip to the fuel station.'

He added that his girlfriend Thirada usually waited on the getaway motorcycle, while he and Amphol stole the goods.

Meanwhile, Chanapong said he became suspicious when several fuel bottles began disappearing from his inventory for the past two days.

When he checked security footage, he saw the trio arriving just past midnight to steal the bottles from his store.

He said: 'They stole four bottles on September 8, then returned the following night to steal two more bottles, along with expired packets of junk food that I was going to discard.

'I thought they must be complacent, to be stealing from me two nights in a row. So I decided to stay up and watch on the third night. They arrived on motorcycles as I suspected, so my neighbours and I were able to catch them.'

The suspects were detained in police custody and were awaiting prosecution.