Police appeal for help to identify getaway lorry after �6,000 scrap metal raid at Arada stove company

POLICE are hunting thieves who stole a giant waste skip from outside an Axminster factory on Tuesday night – escaping with property worth �6,000.

The villains reversed a four-axel lorry through locked gates at Arada Fires, on the Millwey Rise industrial estate, where they hoisted up the skip containing valuable scrap metal.

Police say the driver was clearly a highly skilled skip operator who knew exactly what he was doing.

The “cheeky” theft took place between 9.10pm and 9.20pm and CCTV cameras on nearby businesses captured the incident in some detail, although not enough to identify the lorry’s number plate or its make.

Two men in a blue Peugeot, possibly a 306 or 307, were also filmed nearby, apparently acting as lookouts.

Now police are anxious to hear from anyone with information about the lorry’s make and registration and any of the people involved.

A spokesman said that Arada – which makes wood burning stoves – had hired the “enormous” 30 cubic-metre skip, worth �3,500, from EB Janes, of Tiverton, whose logo is clearly marked on the side. At the time it contained some �2,500 worth of scrap metal.

A police spokesman said: “If anyone sees a skip of that description it will be the stolen one because there is only one other which is at the company’s base in Tiverton.

Anyone with information should dial 101 quoting reference KA/12/249