Gate cut with 'blow torch' during second burglary at Ketton farm

Burglars disabled an intruder alarm system and used a gas cutting torch to steal farm equipment worth thousands of pounds.

The premeditated crime at Holmes Farm in Aldgate, Ketton was carried out last night (Sunday, August 22).

A gas-powered cutting torch was stolen from a neighbouring farm the same night, and is believed to have been used to slice through the reinforced steel gates at Holmes Farm.

The burglars also disabled an intruder alarm so that farmer Monty Andrew and his wife Mary were not aware of the attack on their property until the morning.

They woke to find hand tools worth about £3,000 were missing from the farm, including a chainsaw, hedge cutters, disc cutters and a pole pruner.

Farm diesel may have also been taken from their storage tank as the lock to it had been cropped off.

Mr Andrew, whose farm was last broken into in September last year, said: "Nothing is safe. Last time they used a power tool to cut through the gate, so we had a reinforced steel replacement.

"This time they used a gas torch to cut through it. It could cut through anything."

Mr Andrew expressed relief that those responsible had used bolt croppers to access the diesel store, and hadn't used the high-powered blow torch near the fertilisers and chemicals.

"They had sussed us out and that isn't a nice feeling," he added.

"It makes you feel awkward to have had intruders at your home. It's an infringement of privacy.

"It also makes me wonder, what next?"

Anyone with information on the crime is asked to contact Leicestershire Police on 101, quoting reference 21*476905.

Rural crime prevention advice can be found by clicking here.

On Sunday night, light sensors were removed from a property in Essendine Road, Uffington, alerting the owners to the fact criminals might be preparing to return.