Double break-in blow for business

The burglars targeted the garage used by Holly Redford-Wilson and Kelly Harvey-Mason for their Landgirls gardening business on two occasions.

The latest occurred around last Wednesday, November 22.A large chipper was stolen with a pole saw '“ a telescopic branch cutter with an engine '“ and a new strimmer.

The items will cost about 10,600 to replace.

The chipper is the most crucial piece of equipment. Its loss means extra time has to be spent on tree and hedge trimming jobs.

The burglary followed the theft of the Landgirls lorry last July from outside Kerry's Westfield home and business base. The vehicle was worth some 3,000. It was only recently replaced.

Holly and Kerry are determined to keep their business going in spite of the setbacks.

Holly said: "Every aspect of our business has been hit by the burglary. The loss of the chipper is a huge blow. Without it, we are much slower."

Sawn-off branches have to be physically cut up to three times to make them small enough for disposal instead of the minutes the chipper takes to do the same work.

Even disposing of the wood costs more because the hand chopped pieces are less willingly accepted as compost.

Mother-of-four Kerry (28) explained: "A trimming job which would take us a day before with the chipper is now taking us a day and a half to two days.

"It's an inconvenience for us as well as our customers. They have to be around for longer while we do our work.

"We also had to work last Saturday as well because it was taking us so long to work.

"We are probably going to have to keep giving up our weekends to keep our customers happy."

Saturdays are also the only time in which Kerry and Holly (38) can borrow a chipper from another gardening business to soften the blow of the theft of their own.

They will buy a replacement once they receive an insurance settlement and have saved enough to make up the difference between the pay-out and the cost of a new machine.

The chipper was secured by a lock inside the secured garage in Westfield. Every part of the machine was also microchipped with the unique identity of TBA1773L to make it easier to trace.

New security measures are being installed by Holly and Kerry around the building.