£30,000 price tag put on Market Drayton car showroom raid at the weekend
Three cars with a total value of about £30,000 were stolen from a used car showroom at the weekend, the business owner has confirmed.
Police appealed for witnesses and information following the burglary at AJC Cars Ltd, Chester Road, Market Drayton, which happened sometime overnight on Saturday into Sunday.
Offenders also took about £6,500 in cash and the safe as they ransacked the offices.
Aaron Coombes, of AJC Cars Ltd, has been running the business at the former Stormy Petrel pub site for two years, said he expects the business to be re-opening this Wednesday.
"The gates had been smashed in and they made a mess of the office," said Mr Coombes.
"We think there must have been four of them because one of them needed to access the gates. They took three cars: A blue BMW 4 series; a grey Audi S3 and a white Audi TT."
Mr Coombe said nothing of this scale has happened to him before.
"We had a Ford Fiesta stolen from our old site in Market Drayton about three years ago but that was some youngsters."
The raid comes only days after five cars with a total value of around £90,000 were stolen in a break-in at a second hand car business also near Market Drayton, only about a mile away from AJC Cars.
The owner of Tern Valley Cars, on the A41 at Crickmerry, Wistanwick, reported the stolen vehicles are a grey Land Rover Velar, a grey Ford Transit, a red metallic Kia Ceed, a silver Mitsibishi ASX and a grey metallic Ford Ranger.
Commenting on the raid at AJC Cars, PC Iain McIntosh, of the policing team in Market Drayton, said: "A burglary has taken place overnight at AJC Cars Ltd, Chester Road, Market Drayton and a number of high value vehicles have been stolen. The offence location is almost directly opposite the Tern Hill Army Barracks.
"Officers are appealing for any potential witnesses, CCTV or dash cam footage that might assist with locating the vehicles and identifying any suspects. The offence is believed to have taken place between 6pm on Saturday and 6am Sunday ".
Anyone with information can give it to police by calling 101, quoting incident 00141__14052023, via www.westmercia.police.uk using the same incident number or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
