Businessman's upset after £14,000 caravan stolen from his Wigan site

Gary Hall, managing director of Stewart Longton Caravans, is upset that no-one has been brought to justice for stealing the vehicle from his depot in Standish.

Fencing on the site on Preston Road was knocked down on the evening of Wednesday, November 11, a security lock was broken off a caravan and it was towed away.

Mr Hall’s son Daryl received a phone call from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to tell him what had happened and he provided details of the caravan, which was fitted with a tracking device.

The next day, an officer from Cheshire Police informed him the caravan had been found, towed by a vehicle with allegedly false registration plates, and a man had been arrested.

But just 24 hours later, father and son were dismayed to be told the man had been released.

Mr Hall claims they were told the force was having difficulty accessing the caravan’s details from GMP, while charges were also not being laid in relation to the number plates.

And after Cheshire Police sent a statement saying further enquiries were being made, Daryl claimed he had been told by a member of the force that some aspects of the incident were trying to be passed back to GMP.

He said: “The whole process is just horrific. I’ve been on hold on the phone for hours trying to speak to officers and we have heard so many different, conflicting stories. It’s awful.

“They’ve caught this guy in the act with a stolen caravan, yet they’ve let him go.

“It doesn’t feel like the police are interested in our issues.”

The firm has had to repair the damaged fencing, staff spent four hours in the pouring rain trying to secure the site and the rest of their stock, and they are now in the process of trying to recover the stolen caravan from the police compound.

It is another blow for the business, which is regularly targeted by criminals and has at least one incident on this scale each year.

And Mr Hall is furious with the way police have dealt with the case.

He said: “They asked us if we wanted them to prosecute. The guy has done thousands of pounds worth of damage, he has probably damaged the caravan he has stolen and they asked if we wanted to prosecute him. It’s bizarre. We are all so angry.

“We always try to work with the police wherever we can.

“We don’t get a lot of support on all the incidents we come across, whether it’s vandalism or theft. Normally we don’t get anyone to see us.

“This time we thought at least they had done their job, but we are stunned.”

Cheshire Police said that at around 4pm on November 12 officers arrested a 24-year-old man from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire on suspicion of drug driving and theft of a caravan.

The man has since been released under investigation pending further enquiries.

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