Police are appealing to the IT industry for information after armed
robbers stole £700,000 worth of Pentium chips from a freight
forwarding company near Windsor last week.
James RogersThe attack, which took place on the afternoon of Monday 22
January at the Horton depot of Kay Express, is the latest in a
spate of IT robberies in the M4 corridor. Three weeks ago burglars
made off with £150,000 worth of memory chips from Newbury-based
reseller Rombyte. The attacks follow last December's attempted
break-in at Hungerford chip manufacturer Hypertec.
Kay Express owner Kay Ram said, "There were at least three
people involved. One of the men was in the getaway car, another was
standing over our warehouseman and a third was watching over a
group of builders who were working on our site. As far as I am
aware, the gun was held to our warehouseman's face throughout the
raid."
According to local newspaper the Windsor & Slough Express,
the raiders then made their escape in a dark coloured BMW
saloon.
Detective Inspector Greg Elphick of Thames Valley Police said,
"We would like to hear from anybody who saw the men drive off at
high speed. We would also like to hear from anyone in the industry
if they are offered anything like this technology in unusual
circumstances."
A police spokesman said £18m worth of computer chips have been
stolen over the last 18 months in the south of England alone.
Companies outside the M4 corridor are also falling prey to
robberies. Last November saw the theft of an estimated £1m worth of
computer equipment from the London headquarters of Deutsche
Bank.