METAL thieves tore apart and smashed £30,000 worth of air conditioning units and walked away with the scrap – worth £100.

Computer networking firm GGR Communications in the Hampton Lovett Industrial Estate, near Droitwich, were targeted some time in the early hours of yesterday. The firm is a growing business and handles network issues for a variety of clients, including the Jockey Club.

But staff arrived at work to find external air conditioning units, which are fixed to the wall of their offices, were pulled down, torn apart and the internal wiring and piping – copper and aluminium – removed.

The firm’s boss Adrian Clinton-Watkins, aged 39, said they first became aware CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 aware when a temperature sensor in one of their computer rooms set off an alarm.

He said it had gone off at about 4am, which he believes suggests the thieves had struck about an hour beforehand.

Although insured, he bemoaned the fact thieves had done so much damage for such little reward.

“They’ve smashed up the units for about £100 of scrap,” he said.

“We got an alert that the server room was heating up, as it is kept chilled for operating reasons.

“None of our customers were affected as all that is kept at off-site data centres, but our data was in there however we were able to move that quickly elsewhere - so it was a good test of our disaster recovery.

“But it’s annoying, obviously, and we’ve never had it happen here before.”

Police are now studying CCTV of the area to see if they can identify any suspects, and scenes of crime officers are due to dust for fingerprints.

A West Mercia Police spokeswoman confirmed the theft are urged any witnesses who may have seen anything suspicious on the estate between 7pm Wednesday night and 8am yesterday morning to call them on 101, quoting 64/S/200912.