Anger at theft of screens

Lives are being put as risk by thieves who are stealing vital ambulance equipment because they are mistaking them for satnav devices.

Staffordshire Ambulance Service has issued a warning to would-be thieves that the display screens used by ambulance drivers would be "totally useless" to anyone who steals them.

Service spokesman Bob Lee has slammed recent thefts as "disgusting and deplorable" acts.

He says the devices only receive information from the Stone Road control centre and do not operate the same way as conventional satellite navigation systems.Three screens have been stolen from ambulances across Staffordshire in recent weeks.

Paramedics attending an emergency call-out in Essington, near Wolverhampton, returned to their ambulance to find the screen had been ripped out.

In the north of the county an ambulance window was smashed by a raider and another sneak-in theft has also occurred.

He said the offenders had put people's lives at risk with paramedics unable to receive vital information they require via the screens.

He said "These are disgusting, deplorable actions which are putting lives at risk."