Thieves raid Telford scrapyard and school

Thieves escaped with more than £15,000 of scrap metal and £8,000 of laptops in raids at a scrapyard and a school in Telford.

The James Rollason scrapyard in Wellington was targeted overnight on Saturday when burglars escaped with up to 40 alloy wheels.

The raid, which was discovered at 9am yesterday, came less than three weeks after the yard was targeted on three consecutive nights.

Chris Ammonds, spokesman for Telford police, said: "This is actually the fourth theft that has occurred at this scrapyard during the past three weeks and on each occasion thieves appear to have scaled or cut through the fence to access the premises."

The first break-in was on August 5 when intruders struck between 10pm and 4am the following day and fled with large bags of scrap brass worth about £12,000.

The following night burglars fled with 800kg of non-ferrous metals worth £2,300.

The yard was targeted for a third time on August 8 when 28 wheels and tyres, along with 100kg of metal cable, were stolen.

Meanwhile, burglars smashed their way into Charlton School in Wellington between 10.50pm and 11.10pm on Saturday.

A pane of glass was smashed in a fire exit door before the burglars climbed through.

Twenty laptops, including some which were still in boxes worth about £400 each, were stolen.

Police urged anyone with any information about the burglaries to contact them on 0300 333 3000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.