Thieves cause £40k damage in garage raid and vandalism

A GANG of thieves raided a garage for more than £40,000 worth of goods before dousing its office with oil and shunting cars out of the way with their getaway van.

Sheraz Gilani, 27, who owns family-run Edinburgh Central Cars, said a superbike worth £10,000, a Ford Transit van and luxury remote-control toys had been swiped.

The band of robbers also doused Mr Gilani’s office with oil, emptied his filing cabinets on to the floor and destroyed and stole CCTV cameras.

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They took three computers, alloy wheels, tyres and power tools during the raid, carried out sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

The motorbike – a Yamaha R6 – is capable of speeds of up to 200mph and Mr Gilani said he believes the van was taken because the haul became too big for the gang to carry.

He said: “I’m gutted. On Monday night we left the building at about 8.30pm and it was all locked up, but when my employee arrived at 7am the next morning they found the fire door smashed open.

“I rushed down and I could see the place had been terrorised. There was nothing left.

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“The first thing they did was take the motorbike, followed by 11 sets of expensive alloy wheels. They’ve gone round and stolen all the cameras so they weren’t caught on CCTV, and all the computers.

“My office was completely trashed. They threw oil everywhere then emptied all my paperwork on the ground, stole a luxury remote-control car and a helicopter worth £600 each, and took loads of car keys.

“They tried to remove some vehicles but they were prevented by about 100 cars parked around the cars they wanted. In the end, all they took was a white Transit van, which I think they took to put all the stuff in.”

He added: “They shunted some of the cars and that’s caused about £10,000 in damage. Everything they stole must add up to at least £40,000.”

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Mr Gilani, who lives in Lochend, has now installed 14 top-of-the-range cameras around the building.

Mr Gilani has been running the business with friend Mohammed Misbah Arshad, 33, for around four years.

Detective Inspector Dave Pinkney said: “The owners of these vehicles and the proprietor have been left devastated by this crime and we are eager to speak to anyone who can help us find those responsible.”

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