Gutted gardener Paul Coltham, of Chippendale Road, Broadfield, told how he left his work truck on Three Bridges Road before meeting pals Chloe Silver and Jason Carter for drinks.

But when Paul returned in the morning to pick up his motor – he found the vehicle and more than £2,000 of tools had been burnt to a cinder.

The 37-year-old, who runs his own landscape gardening firm, said: "I couldn't believe it. It's just pointless, what they've done is not only ruin the vehicle but there was a lot of expensive stock in there as well.

"I'm a landscape gardener and I do a lot of high quality work, I had about £1,000 worth of things like stainless steel screws which can't be used anymore because they're heat damaged.

"I lost lots of small tools like spirit levels which were tucked between seats, all my paperwork is gone as well.

"You keep thinking about all the bits and pieces and thinking 'Oh no I had that in there and that in there,' it all just suddenly adds up and you've lost nearly £2,000 worth of stuff, and all they've got is a car stereo worth about £20.

"It's a massive thing to lose your work vehicle, it's not like I work for a big company, and it's just me and my stuff."


Pals Chloe, 25, of Furnace Green, and Jason, 36, from Horley, also had their cars targeted at the Three Bridges parking spot.

Furious Chloe said: "My car had three tyres slashed, the window broken and the stereo taken and the other car had the window smashed as well.
"I couldn't believe it, it's just ridiculous. I was really angry, it's the money as well, it's so unnecessary."

Crawley fire crews attended the blaze at 4.30am.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "We are keen for anyone with information about this to come forward.

"It appears that all of the cars that were parked at Three Bridges Cricket Club at the time showed signs of being broken in to and two of the vehicles had suffered fire damage. All of the vehicles involved have been recovered for forensic purposes and the investigation is ongoing. "

Anyone with information is urged to contact detectives at Crawley Police station by calling (01293) 6070999, quoting serial number 495 of September 21.