A bed firm in Westbury faces buying a whole new van, after thieves stripped parts from one of their vehicles in an overnight raid.

Moonraker Beds, in Head-quarters Road on the West Wiltshire Trading Estate, was targeted between 7.20pm on Wednesday, January 8 and 5.45am the following day.

Thieves cut through a fence before stripping the Mercedes van of its front grille, headlights and indicator covers.

Sales director Andy Lewis said the incident was the latest in a string of thefts the firm had suffered since opening in 2003. Catalytic convertors and fuel were stolen previously.

Mr Lewis said: “The cost of repairing this is likely to be above the value of the vehicle, so overnight these people have technically written off one of our fleet.

“Although we have expan-ded fairly rapidly, we are not a huge company and losing one means of delivering our product will affect us greatly.

“Whilst I am sure the thieves think, ‘No harm done the insurance will pay up’, the actual financial impact of their actions will be considerably above the value of the parts stolen.

“Somebody knows who carried this theft out. It may be the same person who stole the catalytic convertors last year and we can only hope they are caught and severely punished.”

The thieves also searched of the van, but police do not think they made any attempt at steal it, suggesting they were after replacement parts for their own vehicle.

PC Ben Agate said: “It seems someone has damaged their vehicle in floods or an accident and wanted to find a cheaper alternative to replacing some of the parts."

Anyone with information can call police on 101.