Car is crushed by raiders

A lorry was stolen and car flattened in a raid on a vehicle hire firm today.

A forklift truck was hot-wired to move a five and a half ton block of concrete and drop it on Ian Moore's Peugeot 407 saloon.

The father-of-one, who had his 29th birthday yesterday, said of damage at FW Bickford & Sons, Paradise Lane, Featherstone, south Staffordshire today and said: "That is some bloody present." Ian, of Perton, near Wolverhampton works at the firm as a fabricator.

An empty three-year-old 18-tonne skip loader worth up to £50,000 wasdriven through locked eight ft high gates.

The vehicle has a white cab, grey body and the registration number BW04TWN.