The manager of an Elgin garage is “absolutely gutted” after callous thieves targeted his business for a second time in a year.
SLR Auto Repairs’ premises on Grampian Road was broken into overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thieves took off with £10,000 to £15,000 worth of equipment including car diagnostic tools such as computers and battery testers and also two expensive model helicopters.
It is the second time the business has been targeted, with their garage being broken into in January and diagnostic equipment stolen.
These items were never recovered and now their replacements have been taken seven months on.
Manager Scott Norgate says the team are “absolutely gutted” and this crime will cost them “quite a bit of money.”
He said: “In total both these break-ins cost us about £30,000 which is devastating for a business like us.
”We never qualified for the coronavirus grant either so this is another blow to us.
”The owner Sandy came in Wednesday morning and discovered the office door was caved in and they had stolen everything that was worth something.
”We’ve only had most of that equipment for about seven months and now we need to replace it again.
”We are all absolutely gutted as it is our livelihoods that have been affected as we can’t do any diagnostic work until we buy new equipment.”
Someone was caught following the first break-in but the equipment was never recovered.
Scott hopes this appeal will help to track down some of the items and save them some money.
He said: “The office wasn’t quite ransacked but they took everything that was worth something and wasn’t nailed down
”To make it worse, it’s the second time this has happened in a year and it’s the same equipment that has been stolen.”
In addition to the car equipment, two expensive model helicopters belong to Sandy were stolen.
Worth around £2,000 to £3,000, they are about 2m long and are specialist items.
Sandy collects them and used to fly them with his father.
Scott added: “We have been checking selling sites as they would be quite hard to sell, as they are not ones you would find at Toys R Us.”
Police are investigating this break-in and made an appeal for information.
Detective Sergeant John Lumsden from North East CID said: “We’re at the early stages of the investigation and following up on a number of lines of enquiry.
“I’d urge anyone who may have information about the break-in to get in touch with your local policing team”.
If you have information regarding this crime you can contact the Police on 101.