WORKMEN across Selby have been advised not to leave valuable tools in their vans following a spate of thefts in the district.

Between Friday and Sunday, four vans and a garage were broken into, and hundreds of pounds-worth of power tools and a laptop stolen. The first incident occurred overnight on Friday, in Mayfield Drive, Brayton, when thieves stole DeWalt and Makita tools from a Vauxhall Astra van.

The next incident occurred the following night, when DeWalt and Makita electrical tools were stolen from an LDV van in Doncaster Road, Selby.

Sergeant John Suchomski, of Selby Police, said the crimes were thought to be linked, but no arrests had yet been made.

Sgt Suchomski said: “The fact that the crimes are in the same locality at about the same time period would suggest these are the some people working in the same area. The later ones seem to be speculative crimes, where the tools may not have been visible, but the thieves have come away with anything that was in the vehicles.”

Another incident took place in Thorpe Willoughby overnight on Saturday, at an address in Dane Avenue, when thieves stole a crowbar from a tradesman’s van parked in the driveway of a property, then used it to break into the garage.

Once inside, they stole a number of expensive, German-made Festool power tools, worth several hundred pounds.

Also that night, the rear window of a Mercedes Sprinter van was smashed outside an address in Sandway Close, Thorpe Willoughby, and thieves made off with a Hewlett Packard laptop computer.

Sgt Suchomski: “Our advice is not to leave valuables on display overnight in any vehicle.”