Hapless gang of thieves take all night to smash through a concrete wall... only to steal an EMPTY safe



Thieves chipped at wall for days to steal company safe on the other side



Though no cash was taken, bank account details were stolen and the account was drained

Company director, Ashley Vilka, thinks the gang had been working on hole at night and covering it up with plasterboard during the day



A gang of thieves took days to chisel their way through a concrete wall to get their hands on a company safe and hid their progress with plasterboard during the day.



The crooks broke through the wall at Best Quote Screens Ltd in Romford, Essex in the hope of stealing cash from the family run business.

But despite their best efforts after working through the night to get their hands on it, the safe was almost empty when they took it.



Ashley Vilka, 44, arrived at work to find the gaping hole which he thinks would have taken thieves days to carve out

Director of sales, Ashley Vilka arrived at work on August 15 to find the gaping hole in the office.

'I couldn't believe it when I came in, I opened the door and froze. I was shocked at the sheer cheek of it,' he said.

'I locked up at 5.15 p.m. the day before and there was no sign of the hole.

'They would have had a surprise, though, when they opened it as there was no money in it.'



Though there was no cash in the safe, details of a post-office account held by Mr Vilka were stolen and the little money it held was drained.

'They aren't stupid': The crooks managed to get around CCTV and alarm systems to make the three feet wide hole in exactly the right place. Despite their best efforts the safe in question was next to empty when they eventually got their hands on it



He told MailOnline: 'Like a wally I had put the pin code for my little post office account in the safe. The account was empty by 11p.m. that night so I knew something had happened.



'There was no way they could have done the whole thing between the time I left the office and 11 p.m. that night,' he said.



'They must have been working on it for at least a day.'



Mr Vilka imagines the thieves had been chipping away at the wall during the night and covering up their progress with a plaster board before workers returned in the morning.



'They aren't stupid.



'It has to have been a customer or someone who's come around and clocked it because the whole building is alarmed and we have CCTV at the front. They were coming in from the back.'



'The safe was very heavy so it would have taken three or four people to lift it and they must have taken it away in a van.'

