Two cars and £30,000 worth of tools stolen from garage in Northampton

Thieves broke in through the roof of Adrian’s Autos in Freeschool Street and stole two vehicles, a Vivavro van and VW Passat, and stole a £20,000 tool box and otehr items worth an estimated £10,000.

To get the vehicles out of the garage, the thieves used an angle grinder stored inside the premises.

Owner Adrian Lane said the burglary, which happened in the early hours of December 20, had led to a loss of business during the past few weeks.

He said: “It has affected the business in a massive way. We are not able to do any diagnostic work as all those tools were stolen.

“We have had to cancel quite a bit of work.”

Employee Jim Sohal said he was frustrated the thieves had not yet been caught.

Mr Sohal said he had recovered the two cars himself after searching the town following tip-offs but claims the police had not contacted him since the day after the burglary.

He said: “Since they did forensics on the vehicle I recovered I have not heard anything from them at all. They said they would be in contact on a weekly basis.

“This area is covered by CCTV so you think they would have picked up the registration of the vehicles quite quickly.

“We have also subsequently found out there were a couple of break-ins to businesses nearby and, if we had known that, we would have taken more precautions, like leaving the tools in a different place.”

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said the case was being dealt with by detectives and the CCTV footage had been viewed by a sergeant before it was deleted.

A meeting between Mr Sohal and the lead detective in the case was due to take place on Wednesday.