ON Thursday evening, thieves broke through a locked gate at Cole’s Cross near East Allington and stole a trailer in broad daylight.

Fortunately for the owner, Tom Wheeler, one of the wheels on the trailer had seized-up, so the thieves weren’t able to get far, and left an easily traceable black skid mark through the lanes.

Mr Wheeler followed the thieves, and filmed the chase on a ‘dash cam’ - a mobile camera attached to his dashboard.

When Mr Wheeler caught up with the thieves, they made several attempts to unhitch the trailer and abandon it, while continuing to drive off when Mr Wheeler got close.

Eventually they succeeded, and left the trailer in the middle of a lane.

The Ford Transit van was liveried with ‘YGS Landscapes’ - a gardening company based in Elfordleigh near Plympton - although the vehicle no longer belonged to the company, and was discovered to be using fake licence plates.

Steve Warren-Brown from YGS Landscapes said: ‘The vehicle in question was part of our fleet but was, due to an MOT failure, used as part of a purchase of two new vehicles, with a local garage.

‘We have all paperwork to support this.

‘Our current fleet vehicles are fitted with trackers which confirm that none of our vehicles were involved in this incident.

‘As a business man of more than 30 years, I am appalled that we have already received unsavoury emails and that our company name is being associated with any criminal activity.

‘I can assure you that we will assist the police in every way to ensure that the perpetrators are bought to justice.

‘If anyone has any questions they can email my office and I will be more than happy to reply personally.’

If anyone has any information about this crime, or has seen the van in the area, please contact PC Kelley in Totnes, quoting the crime reference number CR/40472/16.