Woman offers £25,000 reward after she was victim of 'organised crime gang' in Milton Keynes

Caroline Welch stopped at Newport Pagnell North services on Friday at around 2pm with her small grandaughter.

She parked her White Maserati Levante jeep next to an electric charging bay, locked the vehicle and walked to the nearby KFC with her grandaughter, who is seven.

"I was gone 10 minutes. When I came back, the car had been opened... An electronic device must have been used to open the car as I specifically locked the doors," she said.

The crooks took Caroline's Louis Vuitton handbag that she had hidden underneath a pillow in the car, and then they opened the boot to steal a black pull-along case.

Inside the bag and case was jewellery of great sentimental value, said Caroline.

Her phone, which she had hidden beside her seat, was also stolen.

"I rushed straight back into the services and went into Waitrose to tell them I needed the police," she said.

"I was advised there was no CCTV. Also, a man who works in customer service came out and he shrugged his shoulders when I told what had happened. He also agreed there was no CCTV. Nobody at any time asked me for any information or logged any details of what happened."

Caroline called the police and says she spent an hour on the phone to them.

"The police took all the information and gave me an incident number. The officer I spoke to said he would put it out to radio and hopefully it would be dealt with, as the value of belongings that were taken was very high.

"He then came back to me and said no one responded so it will be put into the slow investigative pile and someone from CID may call next week. I asked if someone was going to come out to me and maybe take fingerprints or something and he said no."

Caroline has since researched similar crimes at the service station and says there has been on average one a week over the past few months,

"The police informed me there is organised crime ring that targets that services. They are aware but can do nothing as the technology is way ahead of the police. They even use families to do the theft so they don't look suspicious," she said.

"I'm absolutely outraged and distraught that no-one seemed interested in helping me. The contents of the car were sentimental and I am putting up a reward of £25.000 for any information leading to the recovery of my jewellery."

Caroline is hoping somebody may have spotted the offenders taking the items from her distinctive car, or may even have dashcam footage of the theft.

Anybody with any information should call police of 101 quoting reference 43200227625.

A police spokesman said: "Thames Valley Police is investigating a report of a theft from a vehicle, which took place at around 2pm on Friday (24/7) in Newport Pagnell motorway services, off the M1. It was reported that a vehicle was broken into, and possessions of high value were taken. The matter is being investigated and ongoing enquiries are being made to establish the circumstances of the incident."

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