THIEVES stole plant machinery including rollers and a lawnmower from an agricultural college site on Monday night.

A number of items were stolen in the break in at Oaklands College’s Smallford campus in Hatfield Road between 10.45pm and 11.45pm.

The culprits gained access by removing a 1.5 tonne bollard from the front gate and drove onto the site in a large articulated lorry which they loaded the equipment into before driving away.

The machinery included a Verti drain, a Lloyds Lawnmower, a Cambridge metal roller and a mid-sized metal roller along with a tractor mounted loop. The lorry used was described as having bright orange lights on the top.

Detective Sergeant Nina Winfield from the St Albans Local Crime Unit said: “This was a brazen crime. The offenders have used a large vehicle in order to take a number of expensive items belonging to the college who are obviously keen to have them returned.

“I would appeal to anyone who was in the area and may have witnessed this incident to contact me at the earliest opportunity. Did you see the offenders removing the bollard or the lorry parked in the area? You might have thought this seemed out of the ordinary but didn’t realise a crime was in progress.”

Anyone with information should call Ds Winfield on the non-emergency number on 0845 33 00 222 or, alternatively, you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.