A BRAZEN gang of thieves stole tonnes of heavy machinery worth £30,000, by leaping over a security fence, starting a dumper truck and smashing back out onto the road - in daylight hours.

The criminals then started two three-tonne tarmac rolling machines and drove them through the same smashed fence, before loading the bright yellow pieces of kit onto waiting vehicles near McDonald's on Leeds Road, Shipley.

The dawn raid happened yesterday at the Ground Force yard beside the railway bridge.

Owner Will Patchell told how he was woken at 5.25am by a call from the site's night-time guard.

"Our security guy rang to say thieves had been into our end storage area nearest the road, and I have to say, I can't believe they had the bottle to do what they did.

"It was a solid wooden security fence and they gone over the top, got the digger going and smashed right through the fence.

"Then they got the two sit-on rollers, started them up and took them both. All in all about £30,000 worth," Mr Patchell said.

He believes it was a well-planned raid by a dedicated gang.

"I'd say these were professionals and I think they've been stalking the place.

"The first thing they did was to push a CCTV camera upwards and cut the cable," Mr Patchell said.

"And they must have had a proper low-loader or wagons waiting. I guess the job would've taken half an hour just to have the physical time to do it.

"This was not just a smash and grab or someone nicking a shovel out of someone's shed.

"This is valuable plant and whoever did it was risking doing serious time for a crime like this.

"Courts have been coming down heavy on any type of plant theft recently.

"I really can't believe they had the bottle," said Mr Patchell.

"It's not as if were down a country lane, we're in the heart of Shipley and right next door to a 24 hour McDonald's."

Mr Patchell warned similar local businesses to be on their guard against the gang and said he now had to hire replacement plant and was installing a spiked steel security fence.

"One thing is we are very busy at the minute with a lot of jobs on, which is good after the last few years. But we certainly didn't need this," he said.

A police spokesman confirmed the theft of a one-tonne Terex dumper truck, and Bomag 120 and Bomag 80 sit-on road rollers from Ground Force between 8pm on Wednesday, June, 3 and 7.30am on Thursday, June 4.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call police 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.